Skywards
by Echan1263
Summary: Things change, people change, but sometimes...things stay the same. A story is about to unfold, a story that is fifty years after the events you have seen... NextGen.
1. Ch 1: In the beginning

_Things change, people change, but sometimes…things stay the same. A story is about to unfold, a story that is fifty years after the events you have seen…_

_You see a small infant dressed in a black suit and a fedora with a chameleon on the rim of the hat. He turns around and you see that he is not an image like the ones you have seen because he is staring straight at you and he grins from underneath his hat._

"_The events you see here…" he speaks in an almost comically high-pitched voice, but his tone is deadly-calm, "If you're ready to face them, get out and open your eyes skywards."_

**~8~**

Sawada Hideyoshi. Short. Plain. Concise. A name that tons of people in Japan have. Especially the 'Sawada' and 'Hideyoshi' parts; it's a name that's nothing special, nothing remarkable, and the owner of the name wasn't all that grand either. In fact, he was normal, almost _remarkably _normal.

He lived a _normal_ life with one mother and one father. He was an only child and had a _normal _childhood. He had _normal_ friends and he went to a _normal _school in a _normal_ town. It wasn't that the town or the school or his friends were boring, they were just normal and Hideyoshi, also known as Hide, was perfectly content with all this.

In fact, Hide's grandfather used to tell him stories about how he (the grandfather that is) used to be bullied a lot and had a lot of very strange friends, Hide was a little freaked out by these stories of his grandfather's childhood, not to mention that his grandfather was a bit of a strange man himself. Hide then concluded that this was because his grandfather had not been normal to begin with, so Hide had become almost determined to lead a regular life. He promised to himself that he wouldn't stand out in athletics, or get the best or the worst grades, or gain an extraneous amount of friends or enemies. It was much harder than it looked for Hide, he actually had to do calculations on how many friends he had to keep, which turned out to be about twenty, and how to get a passing grade average that was well…average, but the athletics thing wasn't too hard to begin with.

Right now Hide was having a very _normal_ lunch with his very normal friends in his _very _normal school. Three guys, which was a good average of friends to have in class and to have lunch with. Not only that, but Hide also had gotten bread from the cafeteria, something that average middle schoolers had for lunch. Today was a good day, perfectly calm; Hide took a bite out of his bread and noticed that his normal friends were giving him a strange look.

"What?" he asked and looked around in case he had missed something.

"Nothing, it's just that you look more peaceful today, Sawada-san," said one of his friends.

"Yeah, you're normally looking at everything very closely," joked another friend.

"Huh? Do I?" he asked, this time with a bit more urgency.

"I guess," shrugged the first friend that had spoken, "But you're normally very bland Sawada-san, being so bland only makes your other characteristics stand out more."

"R-really?" Hide asked, this was all news to him, "But I let you guys call me 'Hide' and not Hideyoshi, that counts for something right?"

"Yeah, but nobody really calls you 'Hide', Sawada-kun," said the second friend.

"I guess you're right on that…" Hide said thoughtfully and mumbled, "Bland, huh…?"

"Ah, we didn't mean that you were bland though, Sawada-kun!" said his other friend urgently.

"Hm?" Hide looked over to him and gave him a questioning look that nobody else seemed to notice.

"Yeah, we're sorry if we offended you or anything," said the first friend.

_Dang it!_ Hide thought to himself, _Am I supposed to take offense now or something? Should I just pass it off or should I crack a joke? Geez! What would be normal!!_

"Don't worry about it," Hide smiled and almost laughed, "You were probably joking around right?"

They all looked at him in a silence that seemed to last forever to Hide, then they all started laughing and went on to the next conversation topic like a show that was the night before.

_That's good, they didn't seem to notice,_ Hide sighed in relief.

This was how Hide spent his school days; this was a good start to his school year too since this was the first day of his first year in middle school. And he was determined to keep everything as it were.

**~8~**

When Hide had arrived to his home he had been greeted rather violently by a pair of small feet to his face.

"What was that for!?" he yelled while rubbing his nose.

"Sawada Hideyoshi," a squeaky voice spoke, he looked around and saw no one, "Down here."

Hide looked down and saw an infant in a black suit and matching fedora standing in front of him. A tiny, green chameleon was creeping on the brim of his hat.

"H-how can a baby talk…?" Hide began warily.

"That's not important," the baby said, "My name is Reborn, I'm your new tutor."

"Tutor? I don't need a tutor."

"Oh really? Says here that you were failing math last year," said Reborn, he had somehow gotten his tiny hands on a report card that was from Hide's elementary school.

"So what? Everyone was failing that class," he replied.

"I see," Reborn nodded and put the report card in his hat.

"Well whatever," Hide shrugged, he did not feeling like asking questions where the baby had gotten the report card so instead he stood up and picked the kid up to examine him, "What's up with you, kid? Are your parents lost or something? You should get going home now."

"I told you, I'm your home tutor," the baby stated.

"Yeah, yeah," Hide started towards the door while saying, "Why don't you be a 'home tutor' to your brothers or sisters or something."

Hide let the baby down outside his house and started walking back when he was kicked in the back of the head.

"What the hell!?" he tried turning around but was pinned with his arm behind his back, "W-WHY!?"

"You shouldn't treat your tutor like that," the baby said grimly.

"You shouldn't treat your elders like that!" Hide stated.

"What was that?" Reborn questioned while pulling at Hide's arm.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! MOM!" Hide yelled as he squirmed beneath the child's iron grip.

A woman with short, straight, black hair and wearing an apron came running out of the house and saw the situation.

"Oh my! What's happening here?" the woman asked.

"Mom, help!"

"Well you please look at this miss?" Reborn handed Hide's mother an envelope which she opened while bashfully saying "Miss? Oh my!"

She read the letter for a few seconds and clapped her hands together once she was done and exclaimed, "Oh my! _You're_ Reborn-san? I didn't know you were coming today!"

"A letter should have come about my arrival," said Reborn.

"Really? Oh my, I'm so absent minded sometimes, Hide-kun can you check the mailbox for mother?" she asked sweetly.

"Does it look like I can!?" her son yelled from the ground and quickly got slapped on the head violently.

"You shouldn't talk to your mother like that," Reborn scolded.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

**~8~**

"Sawada Hideyoshi; age: 12; height: 155 cm; GPA: 84.05 points," Reborn cited.

"And…?" Hide asked tiredly and was immediately smacked on the head by Reborn.

"I wasn't finished," he stated and continued with the statistics on a clip board that he had procured out of nowhere, "Athletic ability: none; favorite sport: baseball; favorite food: meat balls; favorite girl-"

"Wait, you can't say that-!" Hide tried to argue.

"Tanaka Megumi."

"Hold on! What's this supposed to be for again!?" the boy yelled. They were now sitting in the living room of the Sawada Residence. Hide sat next to his mother on one side of the coffee table while Reborn sat on the other side reading off of a green clip board.

"It's an evaluation."

"What does who I like and what kind of food I like have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, it's just interesting."

"Wait! How do you even know all that stuff!?" Hide yelled and then looked at his mother, "Who _is_ this person anyways!?"

"He's Reborn-san, Hide-kun," his mother said as if this was a fact, "Reborn-san is going to be your new tutor! Apparently he is a very prestigious tutor, he only teaches the best of the best, and your grandfather wrote a letter of recommendation to him and he accepted! Isn't that great Hide-kun?"

"But I don't _need_ a home tutor!" the son argued, "My grades are just fine!"

"Grades aren't the only thing that's important," said Reborn to Hide's mom, "There's also personal fitness, and responsibility; Miss, I teach all my students how to excel not only in school but in life too."

"Oh my, really?" the mother was overjoyed at this.

"Mom, I think you're overlooking a really important factor…" her son spoke, "Like, I don't know, the fact that he's A CHILD! Not even a child! An infant!"

"Oh my, Hide-kun, we all have our own flaws that we have to live with."

"HIS IS MORE THAN A FLAW!"

"Miss, if you do not mind, could you please excuse me and Hideyoshi?" Reborn asked.

"Oh my, of course Reborn-san, and you can just call me Sawada-san," the mother said bashfully, "Come and get me if you need anything."

The door shut and Hide shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The baby was strangely quiet for a few moments as he looked through the things on his clipboard, and then he looked up to Hide.

"Yo, Hide, why are you so lazy?" Reborn asked suddenly

"H-Huh?" Hide blinked, didn't the baby just call him Hideyoshi a few minutes ago? And wasn't he being all formal and polite too?

"You heard me," the baby replied.

"I-I'm not being lazy," Hideyoshi said, and he ran through the number of choices that would make him seem like a normal kid, "Now can _I_ go? There's a new game out that my friends told me about."

"Really? What's the game?"

Hide was silent, he had not planned on Reborn asking what the game was.

"You're badgering," said Reborn.

"No I'm not!" he stammered, "W-What are you talking about?"

"When I showed your report card from last year, you weren't surprised," the infant spoke, "A normal middle schooler would have screamed and tried to make a grab for the card or at least asked where I got it, instead of that you just said that everyone else had the same grade."

"S-so?" Hide went pale but tried to make himself sound indifferent.

"Not only that, but your grade point average is normal in all your classes," Reborn continued, "I was actually surprised to see that you were passing, because I expected you to be more like Tsuna."

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter," Reborn shook his head and continued, "Actually, he was an old student of mine, and I expected you to be like him for…specific reasons, but the only way you are like him is that you suck at athletics and you like the most popular girl in your school."

"How'd you know Megumi-san is the most popular girl in school?" Hide asked, the green clipboard in Reborn's hand turned into a gun which he pointed at the boy's head.

"Because I'm your home tutor." And with that, he pulled the trigger.

Hide suddenly felt an overwhelming mixture of emotions as he fell to the ground, there was shock, surprise, and fear; once those feelings were over with there was...well, anger. Anger towards Reborn for shooting him out of no where, anger at his grandfather for hiring this insane baby, but mainly he was angry at himself for not being able to live, not being able to ever speak to Tanaka Megumi, and not being able to have _real_ friends, people who might actually miss him and then remember who he was afterwards as not being some bland and boring kid. What surprised Hide most though, was that after anger, he was sad and he regretted not being able to do the things he wanted because of his stupid wish to be _normal_.

And then Hide hit the ground and he closed his eyes only to open them to an almost realistic world, it was like he was floating when he stood up, stripped of all his clothing except his underwear (blue with green polka dots btw) and he felt like screaming at the top of his lungs. And he did. He yelled at the top of his lungs:

"REBORN!! I WILL BE KNOWN EVEN IF I WERE TO DIE!!!"

"That's the spirit, Hide," Reborn nodded in approval as Hide busted through a window, thus shattering it, and running out of the house and into the town, "I haven't felt this thrill in a while."

**~8~**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn belongs to Amano Akira**


	2. Ch 2: The girl

**Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced HEE-deh not Hyde like from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" which written by Robert Louis Stevenson**

**~8~**

"W-Why…?" Sawada Hideyoshi, aka Hide, cried in the jail cell, he had been arrested for public nudity and had accidently broken out of the cell a few times already. So now, he was half-naked, his entire reputation was destroyed in his hometown, and he had technically been arrested five times for the same thing in less than a half-hour. His life in Namimori City had been happy, normal, and completely fine up until the moment he had met Reborn.

"Sawada Hideyoshi-san," the cell door slid open with the guard talking to Hide, "Your guardian is here so you're free to go, don't let us see you here again."

"Thank goodness!" Hide cried with joy as clothes were thrown at his face.

"Geez, not even Tsuna got arrested this many times," said the familiar squeaky voice.

Hide pulled the clothes off his face and quickly tried to pull on the pants while arguing with Reborn, "What the hell was that? You shot me didn't you!?"

"Yes."

"Don't act so calm about it!"

"Well, that was the only way to show you I was serious."

"Now you're acting innocent!" Hide took a deep breath in as he pulled on a shirt, "Anyways, I have questions I need to ask you."

"I have answers."

"First off, how come when you shot me I came back to life?"

"The bullet in my gun is called a Dying Will Bullet," said Reborn and he began to explain the cause and effects of the Dying Will Bullet to Hide.

Hide stared blankly at Reborn for a few seconds before getting up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Reborn asked.

"Home," Hide answered, "before I lose anymore normalcy in my life."

"But your life isn't normal," he pointed out.

The boy's eyebrow twitched and he spun around and pointed an accusing finger at the infant, "What are you talking about!? My life has been plenty normal up until now!"

Reborn sighed, "You really don't know why I'm here, do you?"

"Of course I don't know!"

"Then read this," the infant handed Hide a letter which he quickly started reading.

_Dear Hideyoshi-kun_

_If you are reading this, you must have met Reborn. I remember the first time I met Reborn I laughed at him and he kicked me in the gut. The bruise stayed for weeks. Anyways, I am truly sorry for pushing this responsibility on you. Reborn is a good tutor who has taught the best of the best and they've all turned out to be rather successful later on._

_Once again, I beg you to forgive me for not being able to tell you this news in person. But you will find that as you grow older, you will be scared, angry, and happy; you will find yourself with more friends, and nothing will be the same; then maybe you will think of this as a blessing even though it is far from it. Now my sentences are getting mixed up, probably because I'm old. You will be mad at me for this, hopefully one day you'll understand my reasons. One more thing please do not tell your mother about this._

_From your grandfather,_

_Sawada Tsunayoshi_

Hide choked on his spit when he read the last sentence, "Grandfather!? _He_ was the one that hired you!?"

"Did you think it was your other grandfather?" Reborn asked.

"That's Gramps; Grand_father_ is a weird, senile old bastard who has brought me nothing but trouble since the day I was born!" Hide grimaced at the image of his father's father, "And what's with this whole 'Don't tell your mother about this' crap?"

"Let me see that," Reborn took the letter from Hide and read it, after mumbling, "Stupid Tsuna," he rolled up the letter and whacked Hide with it.

"What the hell!?!?!?" he yelled.

"You remind me too much of him," the infant stated.

"That's still no reason!" he argued but got hit on the head again.

"Well I guess since that No Good has left it up to me to explain…" Reborn began; he took off his hat and took out a roll of paper then put his hat back on, "You are the Twelfth Boss of the Vongola Family, the most powerful Mafia Family in the world. And me? I am the Home Tutor Hitman, Reborn!"

"A what? And what does that bastard have to do with this?"

"You're grandfather is the Tenth Boss of the Vongola," Reborn unrolled the paper, which turned out to be a scroll of a family tree with Hide's name on it along with Hide's grandfather's name, "And your uncle is the Eleventh Boss of the Vongola."

"I have an uncle?"

"That's not the point," Reborn rolled up the paper and put it back in his hat, "Your still the successor of the Vongola Family, and you still have a responsibility."

"Responsibility? Is this some sort of joke? I am _not_ gonna grow up to be a mob boss," Hide shook his head in disbelief, "Isn't there someone else who can take this job?"

"Well, there were originally four other candidates," Reborn began, "But the first candidate, your uncle's oldest son, got in a bar fight and was killed in the confusion; the second candidate, your father's youngest brother, was stabbed to death in a knife fight; the third candidate, your uncle's second son, was poisoned to death; and the last candidate, your uncle's youngest son, disappeared in the ocean."

_No matter how you look at it, I'm not getting a very long life expectancy out of this deal..._Hide lamented.

"You can still live a long life and be a Mob Boss," said Reborn.

"How'd you know what I was thinking?" the boy asked.

"A hitman knows how to read others hearts," he replied.

"That's ridiculous!" Hide yelled, then he realized he was currently talking to an infant claiming to be apart of the mafia outside of a police station, "Y-You're ridiculous! This whole thing is ridiculous! This has to be a dream or something, right? Right?"

"Where are you going?" Reborn asked as he watched the boy walk off.

"Home! To sleep! And then maybe I'll regain some normalcy and dignity!"

"Sawada-san?"

Before Hide could respond, he had collapsed into the person that had said his name. When he looked to where the person was he saw Tanaka Megumi, the most popular girl in school and the girl that Hide liked. She was his exact height and had long, red hair that was tied up in a pony-tail with a red ribbon; she had dark green eyes and appeared to have just come back from school because she was still in the Namimori Middle school uniform.

"Megu-I mean Tanaka-san!" Hide stammered.

"Sorry I bumped into you," the girl apologized, "But what are you doing here in front of the police station?"

"Huh? Uh, uh…" Hide looked around for an excuse and realized that she had no knowledge yet of him running around the town half-naked, but he then remembered that she would probably hear about it the following morning.

"Oh yeah, you're probably wondering what _I'm_ doing here," she interrupted.

"Um, yeah! Why are you here?" he asked mechanically.

"Well, my dad is a policeman, in fact my entire family is full of policemen!" she giggled, making the boy almost melt in his shoes.

"Just like Tsuna," Reborn spoke.

_Shit! _Hide thought to himself and glared at the infant, _I forgot he was still there!_

"Wow!" Megumi exclaimed and kneeled down to the little baby, "How cute! Is this your cousin Sawada-san?"

"S-sure…"

"He's so cute! Why are you a suit though little boy?"

"Because I'm with the mafia."

_He didn't just say that! _Hide thought in horror, he feared that Megumi would start calling him a freak and run away screaming.

Instead, the red-head just squealed with delight, "That's adorable! I have to go now though, bye little boy, bye Sawada-san! I'll see you at school!"

"B-Bye," said Hide in a trance.

"So that's the girl you like?" said Reborn slightly skeptically, "She sort of reminds me of the girl that Tsuna liked."

"Shut up okay? Megumi-san just happens to have a soft spot for little kids," Hide started walking off grumpily.

"It's called Mafia Seduction."

"That's it I'm going home…"

"Have you confessed to her yet?"

Hide practically fell down at this question; he looked over to Reborn and yelled, "Are you crazy? Megumi-san is _way_ too popular for me! Besides, I heard that any guy that goes _near_ Megumi-san will get chewed out by Sakuraba Morita!"

"Oh yes," Reborn said thoughtfully, "He's on the list of most hated guy, right?"

"I don't _hate _him," Hide sighed, "I'm just seriously scared of him, and_ everyone_ in school is scared of him! He's huge, scary looking, and he's in the boxing club so that's like a license for punching people!"

Hide sighed in defeat and started walking back home while in deep thought about ways to avoid Sakuraba Morita.

**~8~**

"What? Why are you coming with me to school?" Hide asked the next morning when he was getting his shoes on.

"As your tutor I need to see your environment at school," was Reborn's excuse.

"You are _not_ going to follow me," the boy immediately refused, "If you come to my school, you'll ruin every piece of normalcy in my life! And don't _you_ have elementary school or something?"

"Hitmen don't have to go to school."

"That's ridiculous!"

"Sawada-san!" Hide turned around and saw Tanaka Megumi waving at him, she was standing next to her friend who asked:

"Who's that Megumi-chan?"

"That's Sawada-san, he's in our class remember?" Megumi giggled.

"Oh right," her friend nodded and then they continued on walking towards the school.

"Wow...Megumi-san actually remembered my name..." he said dreamily.

"What about that Sakuraba-guy?" Reborn interrupted the boy's daydream.

"I doubt Sakuraba Morita-san knows that I talked to Megumi-san today," he shrugged and continued walking to school.

"What about that little stunt you did yesterday?"

Hide froze and paled; he had completely forgotten the events until now and realized that by the time he reached school Tanaka Megumi would never talk to him again.

_"Eh? Sawada-san ran around the town half-naked? What a weirdo!"_

Images arose in Hide's head of the various scenarios that he would probably encounter at school. First, he would be shunned by his friends; Second, he would never be spoken to by Tanaka Megumi ever again; and third, he would be beaten up by all the jocks at his school _including_ Sakuraba Morita. Now that he thought about it, he would never be able to show his face again at Namimori Middle or town. And before he realized it, he was already at the gates of Namimori Middle. The whole school seemed to go silent to Hide and everyone that was in the courtyard were all staring at him.

"Yeah! Way to go Sawada!" a cheer busted from the crowd, thus breaking the silence.

"Yeah!" another person joined, after that even more compliments joined and praised the boy on his doings.

"Sawada, I didn't know you had the guts to do that!"

"Way to start off the new school year Sawada!"

"Sawada you were so cool yesterday!"

Hide looked around in surprise; he was completely clueless as to what was going on and then he saw Megumi walk up to him with her hands clasped together.

"Sawada-san, I just heard what you did yesterday!" she said with utter delight, "You _ran _around the town _naked_? No wonder you were outside the police station yesterday! To be honest, I thought that you were really plain and bland, but now I can see that you're actually pretty cool!"

"I-I am?" Hide blinked and soon found himself surrounded within a crowd of people who were praising him and showering him in admiration and compliments. He tried looking back to the spot where he was talking with Reborn but didn't see anyone but the usual crowd there. Then, he looked back to where Megumi was, she saw him looking over to her and she gave him a friendly wave.

Maybe this was a good thing that this happened, but his friends...well his friends were...


	3. Ch 3: Friends or Enemies?

"You guys _like_ me?" Hide asked in amazement when he got to his classroom; his friends had fought off the crowd of Hide's newfound followers that had followed him up to his classroom and now his friends were surrounding him to give him even more praise.

"Heck yeah!" nodded a friend, "We're best friends with the guy that ran around town in his underwear! It was so awesome too!"

"I-It was?"

"Yeah, and here I thought you were just some plain old idiot!" laughed another friend.

"Plain..." Hide grimaced as he remembered that his normalcy had been officially ruined.

"Huh? Oh, sorry Sawada, I was just joking around!"

"Joking huh?" Hide sighed again in defeat and walked to his desk where he laid his head down.

"What's wrong with him?" he heard one of his friends whisper.

"Who knows, but he should be happy right? He _did _just gain instant popularity."

"_Do we really have to be happy for him_?" Hide's eyes widened and he felt himself paled when he heard this sentence.

"Yeah, he _does_ get kinda annoying after awhile..."

"Hey you guys shut up!" a third friend interjected, Hide brightened a little at this until... "He's mega popular now, I also heard that he talked to Tanaka Megumi and Sakuraba even _praised_ him! If we find a connection to Tanaka-chan without being beaten to a pulp by the captain of the boxing club, it's worth putting up with this loser's whining!"

He bit the bottom of his lip and stared at nothing but his desk now, he felt like someone had just punched him in the stomach and an awful feeling like he was about to throw up. This feeling was horrible, Hide needed to get out of this classroom as fast as he could. He shot up from his desk abruptly and started to exit the classroom at a brisk pace.

"Sawada-san, where are you going?" his 'friend' called after him.

"Um, the bathroom, I'm not feeling too good right now..." he said slightly shakily.

"Really? Then hurry back, class is about to start soon."

Hide took off and didn't look back at his now so-called 'friends', for some reason they had looked totally different than before. What was he supposed to do now? He was popular, but his friends didn't even like him to begin with. He felt like the walls were closing in, even though he managed to get outside without being caught by any of his new followers. He felt lost. He felt lonely. Hide was so lost in thought at this point that he didn't realize he had run into someone.

"Hey, watch i-oh, it's you," said the person he had run into.

Hide looked up and saw a giant figure with short, spiky, light-brown hair; the figure had bandages wrapped tightly around his hands and forearms, and scratches were on his arms. A band-aid was neatly placed over his right eyebrow were a cut could have been. The figure looked down at Hide slightly threateningly but held out one of its bandaged hands to the boy.

"S-Sakuraba Morita!" Hide yelped and scrambled to get away.

"Oh no you don't," Morita began, he reached with the outstretched hand he held out and grabbed Hide's shirt collar, "I heard about that thing you did, Megumi-chan told me about it."

"T-Tanaka-san?" Hide shivered under the glare and thought to himself, _What a horrible day!_

"Yeah, I was really impressed by it," the boxer said to Hide's surprise, "I'm not that good with words, and whenever people see me they always run away. When I heard that you ran around the town in your underwear, I thought that you were so cool! It was like you were making a statement to all of us first years about how we should start the school year by being true to ourselves!"

"Huh?" the boy paused and just nodded, "Yeah, s-sure..."

"I like you Sawada, we need more thinkers like you in the Boxing Club," Morita nodded in approval.

"Um, no thanks."

"What?"

"Weren't you going to ask me to join the Boxing Club? S-Sorry, but I'm not into sports."

Morita thought about this, which took a few seconds for him, before bursting out in laughter, "Hahaha! That's funny Sawada! _You_? In the Boxing Club?"

"You don't have to be blunt about it..."

"Sorry, sorry," Morita chuckled before realizing something, "But if you ran around the whole town, naked even, you must have good endurance. Maybe you're more fitted for the track team or something."

"That's a pretty good idea," said a squeaky voice, Hide turned around and saw Reborn sitting calmly on the window sill.

"REBORN!" he yelled in horror.

"What? What's a kid doing here?" the boxer asked and leaned towards Reborn, "Where are your parents kid?"

"A hitman doesn't need parents," Reborn stated.

Morita laughed at this while Hide yelled, "Reborn, I thought you left or something?"

"You thought wrong," the infant said and looked back to Morita, "Is this that Sakuraba-guy you were talking about? He doesn't seem that scary at all."

"Reborn!"

"Hey, do you want to join Hide's Family?"

"REBORN!" Hide hissed.

"A what?" Morita asked.

"I-It's nothing! It's just this online friend-thing!"

"It's the Mafia."

"Hahah! What a funny kid Sawada," the boxer cracked up at this, "You're an interesting guy Sawada, sure I'll be your friend!"

"Eh? You will?" Hide blinked, he had been expecting to get beaten up by Morita.

"Of course! As long as you promise to take care of Megumi-chan, I hear she's in your class," he said, "I've been taking care of her since elementary school, this is the first year where we aren't in the same class so I can't protect her from things."

"Uh, s-sure..."

"Okay, then I'll see you later Sawada!" Morita waved and left Hide right before the bell rang.

Reborn saw that Hide was just staring blankly at the situation in which he thought he was going to be killed in and dead-legged him. Before Hide could get up, Reborn jumped up and landed on his head.

"You're my student now, and my students aren't late to class," he stated calmly.

"F-Fine! Just get off my head!" Hide yelled and started to go to class.

He went into his classroom, for the first time got a disappointed look from his teacher for being late, sat down in his seat, and when lunch came around he decided not to sit with the people he normally sat with and ate in the courtyard where he saw Morita trying to ask for five yen he could borrow from a kid in front of a vending machine. The kid ran away screaming from the boxer, leaving whatever he had just bought at the bottom of the vending machine. Morita looked up and across the courtyard and saw that that Hide was watching this whole thing and waved to him slightly embarrassed, Hide waved back to him and took a sip of water from his water bottle.

"What happened to your admirers?" Reborn asked, Hide turned around and spat the water from his mouth. His tutor was dressed up as a potted plant.

"What's with that outfit!" he asked while wiping the water away.

"Its camouflage," the infant answered, "A hitman has no limit to his disguises."

_This is ridiculous..._Hide thought and covered his face with his hand.

"Your lack of family is what's ridiculous," said Reborn automatically.

"What?"

"I can read what's in your heart, remember? Anyways, you'll never be a successful Mafia Boss if you don't have a family, so far you only have one member-"

"Sakuraba-kun doesn't count!"

"Don't interrupt," Reborn threw some pointy pinecones at Hide.

"AGH!"

"Keep a look out for any good family members, that's your homework today," Reborn continued.

"Do home tutors even assign homework-ow!" Hide asked while picking pinecones out of his hair.

"Who knows."

"AREN'T YOU ONE!"

**~8~**

Meanwhile, on the other side of the courtyard, behind a tree, someone was watching them from afar. The person frowned when they saw Hide.

"Hmph, so that's the Twelfth Boss of the Great Vongola?" light-green eyes shot a glare towards Hide


	4. Ch 4: Bombs and Riddance

**Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced 'HEE-deh' not like Hide from the hit television sitcom, That 70's Show**

**~8~**

Hide woke up today and examined himself in the mirror. He did this ritual pretty much every morning to check for any 'changes', he had seen people do this on TV and he had heard some kids at school brag about chest hairs. So therefore, he concluded that it was perfectly normal to do the same thing as them.

He began with checking the hair on his head, messy and blonde despite the fact that his mother had straight, black hair; he went on to look at his eyes, a light, caramel brown but they were round and childish looking just like his mother's so that at least proved that he was related to her; then he examined his face and other parts of his body like his armpits, chin, and chest for extra hair. When he found none, he would sigh in defeat and quickly run over to the other side of the room to check his height. Hide went to the wall he usually checked his height on and marked a spot, then measured…still 5'1"

After going through this examination he would get dressed for school and go downstairs to eat breakfast…only to have it stolen by Reborn.

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings," was the infant's excuse.

Somehow, a week had gone by since Reborn came to his home and settled in, much to Hide's chagrin. A week had gone by since Hide lost all of his old friends, but found a new ally in the school 'bully' and recognition of existence from the girl of his dreams. And a week had also gone by since he found out that he would be a Mafia Boss.

"Hide, I've taken the liberty of arranging today's schedule," said Reborn, he handed Hide a slip of paper with a list of things on it.

_Go to school on time_

_Meet new student_

_Train_

_Get beaten up by new student_

_Train_

_Find new family member_

_Train_

Hide practically choked on his toast and he yelled, "You have training on here three times! And why is getting beaten up by a new student on here!?"

"It's punishment from last week because you didn't finish the assignment I gave you," said Reborn.

"I understand the training, but how is getting beaten up by someone I don't even know punishment?"

"Isn't it expected?"

"IS THAT REALLY HOW YOU SEE ME???"

"Oh my, Hide-kun you need to get to school," his mother called from the kitchen, "You don't want to be late do you?"

"Fine," he said in a sing-song voice. He took a bite out of his toast and got up to walk over to the door. As he put on his shoes he recalled something that was on Reborn's schedule.

"Wait, Reborn," he called.

"Yes?" a floor board near where Hide was putting on his shoes moved aside, revealing Reborn and almost giving Hide a heart attack.

"Why were you in the floor!?"

"Why weren't you?"

"That makes no sense!"

"Do you really want to argue about this now?" Reborn asked, he held up a clock which had the time on it.

When Hide saw the time, he nearly flipped and pulled on his shoes, grabbed his bag and ran out of the door before saying, "Bye mom!"

"Bye Hide-kun," his mother waved from the door and noticed Reborn in the floor, "Oh my, Reborn-san that's really no place for people to be."

"What about hitmen?"

"Hitmen are people too, Reborn-san," she said haughtily as she picked the hitman up from the floor, once that was done she asked, "Are you going to follow Hide-kun to school today again?"

"Hmm, yeah he might need my help on something today."

"Oh my, you're so cute when you talk all serious Reborn-san!" Hide's mother giggled with delight, she stopped as she suddenly remembered something and ran to the kitchen. When she returned she had a box that was wrapped in a piece of blue cloth and handed it to Reborn, "Reborn-san, could you take this to Hide-kun? He left in such a hurry this morning!"

"Sure thing," Reborn nodded and added, "And a hitman always keeps his promises."

"Waah! So cute!"

**~8~**

_Dang it! I forgot my lunch at home!_ Hide thought as he searched desperately through his bag.

"Well it's too late now…" he said in despair as the bell rang, everyone got to their seats as the teacher entered the class room.

"Class," the teacher spoke in a monotone voice, "You will have a new student today, she is from Italy and is here to complete her studies in Japan. Come on in."

_Italy, huh? Isn't that where Reborn's from?_ Hide wondered in his seat.

The teacher gestured for someone outside the class to come in; when the person walked in all the guys had started whistling and howling like dogs. She had long, platinum blonde hair that reached mid-way on her back, and she was wearing the guy's Namimori jacket open with the girl's skirt extra short. She had a chain necklace and another chain on her skirt that was attached to a belt with a silver skull on it. She had striking green eyes that looked like they were looking down on everyone and everything in the classroom. The Italian girl was nevertheless very pretty, and she had a sort of dangerous 'edge' to her that only enhanced her presence in the room.

"Gokudera Hanabi," she stated at the head of the class.

_She's a total punk!_ Hide immediately thought but the other guys in the class had immediately fallen for her while the girls also seem to fall for her and called her 'cool' and 'awesome'.

"Well, Gokudera-san will you go sit by-," the teacher began but she had already started walking straight towards Hide.

She stopped right in front of his desk and harshly kicked it back threateningly, then she walked over to the guy that sat behind Hide and glared at him.

"Out," it was not a question, the boy complied, half-scared and half-entranced by the beauty.

"Hey Sawada, does that chick have a thing for you?" a classmate sitting next to Hide whispered to him.

"I don't know!" he hissed back.

_But, what does Megumi-san think about this…?_ Hide thought and looked towards the front row where she sat, Megumi was happily reading a book while humming to herself. She seemed completely oblivious by what had just happened.

Hide paled as he felt a heated glare aimed at the back of his head. He sat with the glare until lunch came around and he heard Hanabi get up from her desk. He could tell that she was heading towards him, she was now standing in front of his desk and she opened her mouth to say something to Hide when-

"Hey Sawada!" someone called from outside the class, "Sakuraba's here to see you!"

"H-He is?" Hide gulped.

"Sawada's friends with Sakuraba-kun?" someone whispered.

"What if he's going to get beaten up by him though!"

"Poor Sawada…"

Hide ignored the comments and walked to the door to exit the classroom. Morita was indeed waiting outside and when he saw Hide, he fell to the other's feet and started pleading spontaneously.

"Sawada, I need your help with something!"

"S-Sakuraba-kun, c-can you please stop that?" Hide whispered when he saw that everyone was staring at them, "It's not normal."

"Ah, sorry," the boxer nodded and stood up, "You can call me 'Morita' since we're friends, okay?"

"Huh?" the boy blinked at the sudden change of mood and conversation, "Uh, s-sure Morita-kun, I guess you can call me Hideyoshi…"

"Eh? Hideyoshi is too long, I'll just call you Hide!" Morita declared.

"Um, alright," Hide nodded, _that's what I wanted to be called anyways…_

"Anyways, Hide, I need your help with something this afternoon!"

"What is it?"

"The principal is threatening to eliminate the Boxing Team!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Hide's mouth hung open. Namimori was _known_ for its Boxing Team, why would the principal just suddenly start threatening to eliminate the one thing that this school is good at? Because everyone knows that best grades had nothing to do with it.

"Why would he do that?" he asked.

"I don't know! The senpais told me about it this morning, and if we don't get more new members we'll be out!"

"S-So you want me to join you?" Hide asked, dreaded where this was going.

"Would you?" the boxer asked with a pleading look.

"Of course he would!" said a voice, Megumi was standing by the doorway of the classroom with a look of determination.

"Megumi-chan?"

"Tanaka-san!?" Hide's eyes widened when he saw her.

"Sawada-kun isn't the type to just outright refuse a friend, right?" she said with conviction.

"Megumi-chan, this is Hide's decision, well Hide?" Morita asked, a pleading look was in his eyes.

Hide looked to Megumi, then to Morita, finally he gave in and said, "Alright…"

"That's great!" the girl clasped her hands together gratefully.

"You rock Hide!" Morita patted Hide on the back, "Come by afterschool to the clubroom, and try to bring any other people that you think would be good!"

"R-right…" Hide nodded almost miserably, but once Morita left Hide was happier than ever because he was now left alone with Megumi.

"I heard that you and Morita were good friends Sawada-san!" she said, "Me and Morita have been friends since grade school, but I didn't know that you knew him Sawada-san!"

"Y-yeah Tanaka-san…" Hide nodded, this time much more enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, since Morita is calling you 'Hide', can I also call you that?" she giggled, making the boy melt in his shoes.

"Of course!"

"Okay Hide-kun," she said sweetly and quickly added, "You can call me 'Megumi', if you want, 'Tanaka' is way too formal."

"Right, Megumi-san!" the blonde-haired boy said happily.

"Excuse me," someone interrupted, it was Gokudera Hanabi, she stood outside the class and looked like she had been standing there for a while, "You're Sawada Hideyoshi right?"

"Um, yeah," Hide nodded and wondered how she knew his full name for a new student.

"Hmph," she said in a snobbish manner, "So _you're_ the Twelfth, huh?"

Hide's heart dropped when he heard her say that, he knew perfectly well what the meaning behind that was.

"Hm? Hide-kun, what is Hanabi-chan talking about?" Megumi asked.

"Ah, nothing, nothing!" he said hurriedly, "It's an online thing, right Gokudera-san? _You_ must be the Thirteenth then, right?"

"What?" the silver-haired girl asked, she raised an eyebrow.

"Right, right! Come on Gokudera-san, I just got that new MMORPG from the game store yesterday!" he said and took her hand.

"What's an MROQG-," she began but she was dragged away by Hide.

**~8~**

When they were in an empty place, and after Hide made sure no one was around, he turned around to her and pointed.

"Okay, who are you?"

"You don't even know the name of your rival?" she crossed her arms and gave him an 'are you stupid?'-look.

"I don't even know who you are!" he exclaimed.

"Che, you really are an idiot," she said while reaching into her jacket to take something out.

"Her name's Gokudera Hanabi," said Reborn, he sat on top of a tree branch.

"Hello Reborn-san," she nodded.

"You know each other? Thank goodness!" Hide sighed in relief, "Reborn, can you stop this?"

"I can't," he answered, "this is a duel."

"A what!?" the blonde gawked in horror.

"Reborn-san, is it true that if I kill this guy then I can be the next Boss of the Vongola?" she asked.

"Yes."

"_Kill!?_"

"Sounds fun!" the silver-haired girl grinned and took out a deck of cards, "Let's fight!"

Everyone was silent until Hide asked, "Um, do you want me to play you in a game of cards or something…?"

"NO!" she yelled and threw a card that dug an inch into the cement wall Hide was in front of.

"What the heck!?" Hide's mouth gaped open.

"Hanabi comes from a long line of skilled hitmen," Reborn explained, "She's extremely talented at throwing projectiles, so talented that she adopted the nickname that her grandfather had: Smokin' Bomb Hanabi."

"_Bomb!?_" Hide yelped, he looked over to the card that was in the wall and was literally blown away by it.

"Once I kill you, I'll become the next Boss of the Vongola!" Hanabi declared.


	5. Ch 5: A Flipflopper

**Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced 'HEE-deh' not like Hyde, the city in Pennsylvania, USA**

**~8~**

"GYAAAAH!" Hide screamed, where ever he stepped another explosion was awaiting him.

He felt as if he was on a mine field at the moment, it was dangerous to move as it was but if he stayed still than he would just be a sitting duck for Hanabi's exploding cards. Not only that but to add to it, he was also in a narrow alley in between two of the school buildings. His shoes kicked up dirt as he ran away from the crazy woman that was chasing him with exploding playing cards.

"Hahahah! This is more fun than I expected it to be!" Hanabi laughed as she threw some more cards, one of them landed next to Hide's shoe and he quickly tried to run away from it before it exploded.

"Reborn, aren't you supposed to help me!?" the boy screamed at the infant.

Reborn pondered this for a while, which didn't help Hide at all, until he finally shrugged and said, "Alright, I'll give you a hint: Hanabi's cards are made of a chemical compound that takes five seconds to ignite and explode, the compound activates when it hits something too."

"Hey, that's cheating!" she argued.

"Might I suggest that you kill him faster then?"

"REBORN!"

"Oh! That's not such a half-bad idea, Reborn-san!" she said brightly and took out a couple more decks of playing cards from seemingly no where.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Hide grumbled to himself as he ran away from the girl, he kept on running down the alley until he had hit a dead end, "_Shit_!"

"Now I have you," said Hanabi, she held one card in her hand and smiled, "I'll beat you with only this card."

"Geh…" Hide backed away, only to back up into the wall that was behind him, "C-Can't we just talk about this?"

"Mafia don't talk!" she stated and threw the card.

"AAAH!" Hide screamed and held out his arms to shield himself, nothing happened. He opened one eye and noticed that there weren't bits and pieces of him all over the place. Then, he realized that he was holding the playing card that Hanabi just threw.

"H-He caught it?" she gaped; she quickly regained her composure and took out a few more cards, "Just a fluke! I'll hit you this time!"

"Hide, I suggest you run now," said Reborn, he stood on a tree that had yet to be effected by Hanabi's cards.

"Right!" Hide nodded and quickly ran away.

"Hey you!" she growled and gave chase.

Now Hide was not the fastest person in the world, he always came last whenever there was a race. Even with adrenaline rushing through his veins, he speed had only increased a little. And now you, the reader, are probably expecting something ironic like Hanabi being known throughout the Mafia World as being the slowest person ever. But you're wrong; at her old Mafia school she was the fastest in her class and won every race.

"Got you!" she yelled as she ran right behind him, "Now die!"

Right at that moment, an unsuspecting Morita was walking around the corner of the building and saw Hide running towards him.

"Hey Hide!" he waved cheerfully, not yet realizing the situation of things yet.

"You should face things like a man," said Reborn, he was now sitting on a tree branch with a gun in his hand.

"Morita-kun!?" Hide saw Morita and then felt something hit the back of his head, making him fall to the ground.

_No..._Hide thought as he hit the ground, his head was filled with thoughts of regret, _I wasn't able to run away from Gokudera-san, not only that but Morita-kun is probably going to get hit by one of Gokudera-san's cards...if he does, he'll die too! If only I caught some of those cards..._

"REBORN!!" Hide roared, his underwear was green with yellow stars, "I'LL CATCH ALL THE CARDS WITH MY DYING WILL!!"

"Huh?" Morita raised an eyebrow at this but just went with it as a joke, "Hahah, what a funny joke Hide!"

"Wh-what's going on?" Hanabi looked around; due to the amount of cards she had already thrown, she was surrounded by smoke and dirt that was in the air and had lost sight of Hide when he fell to the ground. But this didn't refrain her from throwing even more cards.

"CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH!" he yelled as he caught each card in mid-air.

"I can still hear his voice, so he must still be alive!" Hanabi concluded, thus she doubled the amount of her cards, "Take this!"

"CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH!"

"He's still at it? Then I'll triple the amount!" she declared, and as luck would have it right at that moment a gust of wind came through and cleared all the smoke and dust away. And the first thing that Hanabi had laid eyes on was a half-naked Hide with a ton of explosive playing cards in his arms. Hanabi, herself, was cradling a much larger amount and when she saw Hide she instinctively did what any other girl would have done in that situation.

"KYAAA! My innocence!" she screamed and dropped all the cards so that she would have hands to cover her eyes with; but by the time she realized what she did the cards were out of her hands, time seemed to slow down for as she watched the cards float gently in the air right about to hit the barren ground.

_So…this is the end of me…? _she thought.

A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed one of the cards. "CATCH!"

"W-Wha…?"

"CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH!" Hide continued to catch each and every card, not one landing on the ground.

"Th-this guy…" Hanabi began in amazement.

The flame on Hide's forehead died out and he wiped his head with relief, saying, "Whew! Thank goodness I made it!"

"Please forgive me!" he turned around and saw that the silver-haired girl was on her knees, bowing down to him, "You are truly the one fit to be Boss! Please Twelfth, will you do me the honor of taking me as your bride?"

"WHAT!?" he yelped and quickly shook his head while waving his arms, "N-No! You don't have to do that!"

"Eh?" she asked slightly dejected and perked up, "Then what about as your follower? Please Twelfth! Just command me to do anything, and I'll do it!"

"Can't we just be friends first?"

"No way," she said in a deadly serious tone.

_I'm too afraid to refuse..._Hide whimpered.

"Isn't that great Hide? You've gained a new family member," said Reborn nonchalantly, "Now you won't have to go through the punishment."

"What are you talking about!? Weren't you just trying to kill me?" Hide asked, he switched from Reborn to Hanabi and then back again.

"Well, about that…" the bomber began sheepishly, "The truth is, I don't really want to be a Boss; but when I heard that there was someone that's Japanese and is the same age as me was the next candidate for Vongola Boss, I just _had_ to test out his strength. Reborn-san said that if I won against you, I would become a candidate for successor. I thought it was such a great deal too, like an expensive handbag that comes with a free wallet!"

_She really is a girl..._Hide thought and then heard Morita laughing at them.

"You're such a funny guy Hide!" he laughed while holding onto his sides, "And you found a pretty funny girl too!"

_He thinks this is all just a joke!_ Hide gawked.

"What are you laughing at giant?" Hanabi glared at the boy making him quickly shut up.

"Oh yeah, Hide the reason I came here was to give you this," said Reborn, he tossed Hide the lunch and then quickly left.

"Aren't you going to give me some clothes too?" Hide called after.

"Don't worry about it Twelfth! You can always borrow mine!" said Hanabi energetically.

"Um, I don't think a girl's uniform will fit me Gokudera-san…"

"You can always borrow a gym uniform from the Boxing Room," Morita suggested.

Hide quickly agreed to this just as the bell rang and realized that he spent his entire lunch period half-naked and trying not to be blown up, not only that but he didn't even get to eat his lunch. He looked from his lunch, to the playing cards that Hanabi was taking great care to put away where ever she had gotten them, and then to his underwear. Frustration built up and Hide yelled:

"Why can't my life just be normal!"

That day, Hide acquired his second family member; Gokudera Hanabi.


	6. Ch 6: Underwear Guy

**Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced HEE-deh, not Hyde like the Home-Improvement franchise, HYDE**

**~8~**

Hide had no clue what he had gotten himself into, it was all because he couldn't say no to Megumi, the girl of his dreams. Now, he was in a small building that was hot and smelled like sweat; it was so hot that you could see a mist of sweat floating around the room. This did not help the image of the clubhouse when Sakuraba Morita, supposed bully, slapped him on the back, waking him from his regret filled daydream and into the horrible reality of a sweaty club house.

"Well, this is the clubhouse!" he said cheerfully, he pointed to a stage in the middle of the room with rope around it and said, "That's where the fighting ring is. Over there are the sandbags, and there, by the changing room, are where the weights are."

"He was here before, giant," said Hanabi, who had been sticking around Hide ever since lunch.

"Yeah, but I'm just so excited," the boxer said happily, "I mean, someone who isn't scared of me is joining the Boxing Club! It's so cool; there are no other first years than us too, which is just great right?"

"Us?" she questioned. "Girls can't do boxing, you idiot."

Hide looked over to Morita to see what he would do, but the spiky headed boy just said, "Yeah, but I wasn't talking to you."

The female glared, apparently taking what he said as an insult. "You want to fight bastard?"

"H-hey you guys, quit it!" Hide pleaded, _why'd I join the Boxing Club again?_

The 'reason' opened the door; Tanaka Megumi walked into the club room, she began walking towards Morita and Hide and it was obvious that something was wrong with her. "Sorry guys, I just talked with the senpais and they said that they've given up on the Boxing Club…" she said disappointedly.

"They did what!?"

"Why?"

"There were no second-years in the club to begin with and the third-years all said that they were done with Boxing anyways."

"I can't believe they would do that!" Morita growled; Hide was a little surprised at his reaction since this was the first time he had seen Morita actually got angry. It looked scarier than the rumors said.

"What are we supposed to do now?" they all fell silent until the clubroom door opened again.

"Hm? People are still in here?" a voice said.

All three looked up and saw the principal of Namimori Middle School, who was also the principal of Namimori Elementary and Namimori High. He was an elderly man who always wore a suit; he had thin, narrow eyes that seemed to be naturally annoyed at whatever they saw with creased wrinkles underneath. He was tall, or would have been, but it seemed that old age gave him a bad back and used an expensive-looking oak cane to keep himself propped up. His hair was a grayish-white color that was on the verge of balding but fixed in a neat, slicked-back position. In fact, he would have looked like a vulture if he had a larger nose and a thinner body.

Why was an old man like him the principal of three separate schools? There were various rumors; one was that the guy was once the long, lost, son of a mayor of Namimori and was raised by wolves and when he came back to his home town, he naturally fell in love with it. Another rumor was that he found his true love and convinced his wolf-parents to let him go to this school, and another was that he was once the Disciplinary Committee Chairman at Namimori Middle…and was raised by wolves. Now that Hide thought about it, a lot of the stories involved him being raised by wild animals.

"Principal Hibari!" Megumi exclaimed and bowed politely; everyone else except for Hanabi followed her example and did the same.

"Good afternoon, Principal Hibari," they all said in a sing-song voice.

"Hn, herbivores are crowding together," the principal mumbled to himself though he said out loud, "What are you all standing around in here for?"

"Please, Principal Hibari!" Megumi began, "Don't disband the Boxing Club!"

The principal merely stared down at them and noticed Hide and Hanabi. He looked at them for a few seconds before saying "Sawada Hideyoshi and…you must be Gokudera Hanabi?"

"Y-Yes sir!" Hide nodded quickly.

"What's it to you, old geezer?" Hanabi questioned with attitude in her voice.

"I heard about you both from your grandfathers," said the principal in a trance-like state.

"Oh, that guy," she shrugged it off.

"Gramps?" Hide asked and then quickly remembered something, "Or my dad's dad?"

"The second one."

"Oh, him," he said, slightly less impressed this time.

"I see, you're both exactly like those herbivores," the principal nodded; it wasn't in approval though it just that sort of nod that old people have whenever they think their right about something and are thoroughly convinced so.

"Um, what about the Boxing Club…?" Morita asked.

"Hm?" the principal was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Oh that, the Boxing Club won't be lasting any longer."

"What? Why?"

"Because there aren't enough members," he spoke with a hint of annoyance in his tone, "This morning I even received news that a lot of the third-year students quit, and since there are only…two?- two members, this club will have to be shut down."

"Oh no…" Megumi frowned.

"How many members are needed to make a club?" Morita asked hopefully.

"Five," the principal answered calmly and looked Morita up and down, "But you should join some other sport, like basketball or baseball. This school used to be known for its baseball…"

_The principal sure spaces out easily_, Hide thought, _I wonder why so many people are scared of him?_

"The track team and soccer team are looking to build new fields for their sports," the principal continued, "The Boxing Clubhouse is probably the most desirable spot for them as well. But this doesn't really affect me, so I couldn't care less."

"Wait a minute, aren't you the principal here?" Hanabi snapped at him, "I thought that a principal was supposed to help the students!"

The principal gave Hanabi a cold look that even made her back away. "You are wrong little herbivore. A principal's job is to protect his school and students. I couldn't care less what the students were feeling." With that, the principal left the room, leaving some questions answered but a whole lot left dangling in the air.

Megumi sighed with despair and sat down on a bench, "The Boxing Club is ruined! Unless we find three more male members, the club doesn't have a chance!"

"I'm sorry Megumi-chan," Morita said apologetically, "I guess I'm really not cut out for team sports after all. Ever since I grew tall, I thought that I could at least make friends in sports…"

"Hey you guys stop whining," said Hanabi, but she didn't seem that into it. Hide rubbed his arm sheepishly as he looked from person to person. He wished that he could help bring in new members, even if was just three people…

"Maybe you should publicize it with your Dying Will," Reborn suggested from the rooftop of a building across the club house as he pulled the trigger and a Dying Will Bullet left the barrel, whizzing straight into Hide's head.

"Hide-kun!"

"Twelfth!"

"What happened!?"

Hide fell to the ground and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he shot straight up with more energy and slightly less clothing than before.

"REBORN!!" the blonde haired boy roared, "GET NEW MEMBERS WITH MY DYING WILL!!!" He ran out of the clubhouse and into the school screaming, "JOIN THE BOXING CLUB!!" at everyone he saw.

**~8~**

He ran across the baseball field, perfectly catching each ball that was thrown at him. He ran across the soccer field, leaving everyone behind in the dust he kicked up. He also ran through the class hallways, attracting the attention of the kids who had stayed for afternoon tutorials.

When flame on his forehead dissipated Hide fell to his knees tiredly, he realized that he was on the roof top of the school and looked down and saw that the clubhouse had a crowd of people in front of it.

"Hey, is this the club underwear-guy is in?" he heard people ask.

"His name's Sawada, I heard!"

"Hahah! First he ran around town, now the school? How awesome is that!"

Hide was once again surprised by the reaction of the student body. People crowded in front of the Boxing Club asking for flyers to get in.

"Are they all going to join?" he asked himself.

When he got back down to the Boxing clubhouse, Megumi ran over to him brightly.

"Hide-kun!" she began cheerfully, "Guess what? We just gained thirty more new members; Most of them are first-years too! It's all thanks to you, Hide-kun!"

"Eh? It is?"

"Yes!" said Morita from behind her, "With this many members, the Boxing Club won't be disbanded! You can also quit now if you want."

"Wait, Sawada's going to quit?" said a student that was listening in on the conversation, "The only reason I joined was because I thought that Sawada was in it!"

"What!?" Hide yelped.

"Yeah, I wanted to be in the same club as underwear-guy!" rallied another student.

"Oh no…" Megumi sighed disappointedly.

"Hey you bastards, stop ganging up on Twelfth!" Hanabi growled, "Just cause he doesn't want to join this stupid club is no reason to gang up on people!"

"Stupid?" one of the boys questioned, "I thought Gokudera-chan was the manager of the Boxing Club!"

"You _what_!?" she yelled.

"Really? I did too."

"I thought I was the only one."

_Gokudera-san is will probably blow up on them now…_Hide thought.

"I'll blow all these bastards away right now!" she growled and, suddenly, her hands were filled with playing cards.

_I meant figuratively not literally!_ Hide screamed in his mind and yelled, "W-Wait! I _am_ part of the Boxing Club!"

Hanabi stopped in mid-throw as Megumi and Morita looked at Hide with a hopeful look. The students that had signed up to join stopped with their bickering and listened to what Hide had to say.

"But," the boy continued cautiously, "I'm not the captain, Morita-san is!"

"What?" Morita asked.

"Oh really?" the atmosphere brightened a little as all the other students seemed to like the idea of Morita being the captain and they would all still be in the same club as Hide.

"And I'm the manager," said Megumi voluntarily.

"_You are_!?" Hide asked.

"You didn't know Hide-kun?" she asked innocently.

"Well, if Tanaka-chan is the manager, then that makes up for Gokudera-chan not being the manager!" cheered a student, this got a cheer of agreement from the crowd.

"Who told you to call me 'chan'!?" Hanabi threatened.

While Hanabi continued to threaten anyone who dared to add 'chan' to her name, Morita pulled Hide aside and thanked him quietly for what he had done. "Thanks Hide, you really are a good friend," he said, "You even ran around the school in your underwear for me!"

_It wasn't really a choice in the matter..._Hide thought about the matter.

"But can you do me one more favor?"

"What is it?" Hide asked.

"Well, you don't have to go to any of the matches or meetings," Morita began, "But can you stay in the Boxing Club?"

"He will," said Reborn, sitting on top of a pole that was on the corner of the fighting ring.

"Reborn!" Hide hissed, "Don't go deciding things for me!"

"Ok then Hide," Reborn turned to stare at Hide and said, "What _is_ it that you would like to say to Sakuraba then?"

Hide looked over at Morita, who was giving him a pleading look; he then looked at Reborn and back to Morita before giving in, "Okay."

"Yes!" Morita pumped a fist into the air and clasped his hands onto Hide's shoulders, "You rock Hide!"

"N-No problem…" the still-underwear wearing boy said with a hint of remorse. Morita didn't take any notice of this as he celebrated with Megumi and the new members of the Boxing Club.

**~8~**

"What a long day…" Hide sighed and took a sip from his soda, he was walking back home from school with a can of soda in one hand and his school bag in the other. Reborn walked alongside him, or at least on top of the concrete wall that divided the houses and the road.

"Do you want me to carry your bag for you, Twelfth?" oh yes, Hanabi had been following him ever since he departed the school gates as well.

"No, you don't have to Gokudera-san," was what Hide about to say before a little boy jumped out from behind the street corner and held up an accusing finger towards Hide.

"Sawada Hideyoshi, I am here to kill you!" he declared.

"What!?"

Hide spat out his drink, creating a beautiful brown-tinted rainbow.


	7. Ch 7: Assassination Attempt 1 and 2

**Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced 'HEE-deh' not Hide, like Hide + Seek the popular children's game that is similar to Tag.**

**~8~**

"Sawada Hideyoshi, I am here to kill you!" a grade schooler suddenly declared to Hide in the middle of the neighborhood street.

"Pfft!" he spat out his soda and wiped the liquid off his face while wincing at the pain that comes with having soda coming out of your nose, "What!?"

"Or that's what I'm supposed to say to you," the boy continued and held up a note as proof, "Some nii-chan told me to say that and give this to you. He said that I'd get some candy if I did it!" it took Hide a few seconds to notice that the kid was expecting candy from _him_.

"_I _don't have any candy for you!" he yelled.

"Scram it, kid!" Hanabi growled as she snatched the note from the little boy.

"Hey nee-chan, I'm not leaving until I get my end of this deal!" the boy argued.

"What a weird note," she commented while ignoring the boy, "It says 'Look up'."

"Huh?" Hide blinked and fell to the ground as something heavy suddenly fell on him from above.

"Geez, I told you to look up," a voice said lazily from above; right afterwards, a colorful canvas covered them and Hide squirmed to get out from underneath the owner of the voice.

The canvas was quickly removed as well as the weight. Hide looked up and saw a guy that was at least a year older than him. He had messy blonde hair that was covered with a black and grey beanie and he had bright blue eyes. He wore a red hoodie with dark blue jeans and had a parachute bag on his back. No matter how you looked at him, he was obviously foreign.

"What the hell was that for, bastard!?" Hanabi yelled, she was the one who had pulled him off of Hide and was holding him by the collar.

"Girls shouldn't say such dirty things," he said calmly while smiling peacefully.

Hanabi's eye brow twitched and she started to get her cards out while saying threateningly in a low tone, "What'd you just say, buddy?"

"Hey nii-chan, you said I'd get candy!" said the boy.

"Oh yeah," the guy nodded towards the boy and dug through his pockets before he took out a note, "If you give this to that same guy, I'll double your amount."

"Okay!" the boy snatched the note and gave it to Hide, "Here you go, now give me candy!"

"W-What?" Hide took the note, it read: _Look up again._

Hide looked up automatically and got a foot to his face.

"It's about time you got here," the guy smirked.

This time a girl with matching blonde hair and blue eyes fell from the sky. She wore a brown hoodie with matching brown shorts. She was wearing sandals as well, which Hide supposed was better than getting boots to the face...

"Looks like I stepped on something…" she said in an uncaring tone.

"Get off the Twelfth you insane girl!" Hanabi roared and tossed the girl over to where the other guy stood. She leaned down to Hide and started shaking his shoulders violently and worriedly, "Twelfth, are you alright!? Speak to me!"

"Hey nii-chan, can I have my candy?" asked the grade-schooler from earlier.

"What? Oh right," the guy nodded and took off his parachute bag and started digging through it until he got out a bag of candy, "Here you go kid, now go brush your teeth afterwards."

"Fine," the boy agreed before snatching the bag and running off.

"Ah, kids are so innocent…" the blue-eyed boy said dreamily.

"You realize that he's probably not gonna do that right?" interrupted the girl.

"Yeah, but it's a nice thought," he shrugged.

"Excuse me," said a squeaky voice, they turned to the source who had been calmly watching from on top of the wall that divided the houses from the road, "But may I ask why you both just collapsed onto my student?"

The guy and the girl looked at each other and nodded.

"Well," the guy began, "to tell the truth, we kinda _are _here to kill that guy."

"We are assassins from America," said the girl, "we've gotten a hit on that weakling over there," she pointed to the still unconscious Hide.

Reborn jumped off the wall, said, "Move Hanabi," and started slapping Hide violently, "Wake up Stupid-Hide."

"Quit it! I'm awake already!" the boy yelled.

"Did you hear what these two just said?" the infant asked while pointing up towards the American assassins.

"Um, no," the response was even more slapping, "QUIT IT!"

The male-American kneeled down to Hide and gave him a peaceful smile while saying cheerfully, "We're here to kill you."

_Don't say that so peacefully! _was Hide's immediate first thought.

"Why do you want to kill me?" he screamed.

"Cause we were paid to, stupid," said the blue-eyed girl.

"Don't call the Twelfth stupid, bitch!" Hanabi roared, "Even if he's a little slow sometimes!"

"That's not helping, Gokudera-san," Hide mumbled.

"Who the hell are you, anyways?" the silver-haired girl asked.

"We are the Assassination team from America, the A-Siblings!" said the blue-eyed boy enthusiastically, "I'm Adam Grandhart, and this is my twin sister, Anna."

"Yo."

"We're different from other assassins though," he continued, "we actually listen to our victims before we kill them. You know, last words, last wishes, we'll even ask you how you want to die!"

"I would prefer _not _to die!" Hide yelled.

"That's not a choice," said Anna, she was now holding two tazers in her hands and said, "Your choices are being electrocuted to death, being sliced to death, or being beaten to death."

_They're all extremely painful_! Hide screamed in his head.

"Hold on," Reborn interrupted, "It would be troublesome if you outright killed my student, is there some way we can just make this disappear?"

"Well…" male assassin began thoughtfully, "You _could _pay us more money than the person who sent out the hit."

"How much is it?"

"Five million dollars," said Anna.

"Dollars?" Hide questioned, "What's that in yen?"

"T-Twelfth…" Hanabi said shakily, she leaned down to Hide and whispered the amount.

"FIVE-HUNDRED MILLION!?" he yelled.

"We'll give you five yen," said Reborn.

"Don't bargain for such a low amount!" Hide yelled.

"How much is five yen Anna?" Adam asked his sister.

"About a nickel."

"That's not even enough for a plane ride home!"

"Don't worry Twelfth, _I'll _take care of this!" said Hanabi.

"Wait, Gokudera-san don't start exploding things in public!" Hide pleaded.

"Huh?" she gave him a confused look and said, "What are you talking about Twelfth? I was going to bribe them!"

"Really?" he blinked as Hanabi took out her wallet, she opened it and then walked over to the twins with full confidence.

"Hey you," she began, "How about five _hundred _yen?"

_She's also going really low!_

"How much is that Anna?"

"Not even five dollars."

"Then no thanks."

"Wait, you said your name was Grandhart, right?" Reborn asked, "I've heard of you guys, you're one of the most infamous assassination teams in North America. I didn't know you guys expanded into Asia."

"We're broadening our horizons," Anna said flatly.

"Oh yeah, I've been wondering about this for a while," said Adam, "But are you _the _Reborn? My sister and I are huge fans of your work."

"Thank you."

_They're complimenting each other now!! _the young boss gaped in horror.

"What are you doing here in this tiny country though, Mr. Reborn?" Adam asked.

"I am here to teach my student."

"Who's that?"

"The person you're about to kill."

"Eh? Really?" Adam looked from Hide to Reborn, "This puny guy?"

"He's going to be next Boss of the Vongola, thank you very much!" said Hanabi with a hint of pride.

"The Vongola?" Anna asked, she put down her tazers and said to her brother, "Brother, I don't think that killing a next generation Vongola is such a good idea. The Vongola can be very dangerous enemies…"

"Hmm, you _do _have a point," said Adam thoughtfully while rubbing his chin, "And we're right in front of the Great Reborn as well…but the person who hired us is no one to mess around with either."

"Who hired you?" Reborn asked.

Adam grinned and held a finger up to his mouth, "That would be breaking the Client-Confidentiality Contract."

"Good point," the infant nodded in approval and asked, "What if Hide grants you both protection under the Vongola?"

"Really?" Anna blinked.

"I know of the situation that is going on between you guys," said Reborn, "So it should be no problem if you decide to join the Vongola ranks."

The twins thought about this and talked it over with each other for a few minutes in English before finally reaching an agreement.

"We'll take you up on that offer," said Adam with a hand held out.

"But we still have a contract to abide by," said Anna, "We won't kill you though, but we just won't tell you who sent out the hit."

"Sounds fair enough," said Reborn and shook hands with them.

_What just happened!? _Hide gawked.

He flinched when Anna turned her gaze to him and said, "Don't worry, we won't allow anymore hits to come after you, Boss."

"Isn't that great Twelfth, now you won't have to be assassinated anymore!" Hanabi exclaimed happily.

"That's not really what I wanted though…" Hide said miserably.

**~8~**

_I just want a normal life!! _he screamed in his head.

The next morning, Hide came down stairs half-awake and sat down in his chair to get ready to eat.

"Good morning, Boss," said Adam cheerfully.

"Morning," he yawned and did a double-take on that, "WHAT THE HELL ARE _YOU_ DOING HERE!?"

"You're taking care of us now, remember Boss?" said Anna from next to her brother.

"Who said that?" Hide asked tiredly.

They both sat next to each other at the dining table while Hide's mother cheerfully gave them pancakes.

"Mom, what are you doing?" the son asked wearily.

"They're our guests, Hide-kun," his mother said cheerfully.

"Thanks for the food, Mama," they said in unison, causing Hide's mother to squeal in ecstasy.

"Waah~! So cute! I've always wanted twins!"

"They're not even your children!" Hide pointed out.

"Oh yeah, we'll also be attending the same school as you Boss," said Adam, "Just a small little detail we wanted to get out of the way."

"How is that small!?"

And for some reason, Hide acquired another two more members for his family…Wait, what?


	8. Ch 8: Sushi Crisis

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is the property of Amano Akira, the author of Skywards is just a humble fanfic author...**

**~8~**

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Hide smacked the alarm clock next to his bedside table and it turned off…five minutes later he did the same thing. Five minutes after that, twenty alarm clocks went off.

"GAAH! MY EARS!" the boy screamed and fell out of his bed. As he blinked in and out of consciousness he saw an upside down version of Reborn looking down at him.

"A Boss should wake up in time for lessons," the infant stated.

"It's Summer Vacation, though!" Hide argued as he sat upright and looked up at one of the hundreds of alarm clocks that were now surrounding him, "And it's 7am! I don't have anywhere to be until eleven and I was going to go work for Gramps!"

"Really? Then you can start your first assignment today," Reborn responded while holding a suspicious looking file in one hand.

"Not that Grandfather!" he yelled, "The other one! He owns a sushi restaurant on the other side of Namimori, and an old friend of mine works there too!"

"A Sushi Restaurant, huh?" someone remarked. The door to Hide's closet slid open and revealed that Anna was inside it, "Is that a fun place?"

"Is _that _where you've been sleeping!" he gawked at the sight, something suddenly dawned on him and he asked cautiously, "W-Where's your brother…?"

"Right here," answered a voice from somewhere underneath his bed.

"Why are you under my bed! ?" Hide gaped and added after a second of thought, "In fact, why are you two even in my room?"

"We need to make sure that nobody is going to kill you in your sleep," Adam explained as he came out from under the bed, "And this is best way to do it!"

Watching the assassin crawl out from under the bed did not ease the young Boss at all, "H-How long have you guys been there?"

"Ever since we moved in," Anna stated.

"You've been there for four _days_?" Hide gawked, he was pretty sure that keeping a girl in his closet and a guy underneath his bed would not only raise unwanted questions but also get him arrested.

"Why are you mad, Boss? Reborn said that you were fine with it," Adam claimed.

"He did, did he?" the Japanese boy asked and turned to Reborn, he nearly fell over when he saw the baby in his bed.

_He just wanted to sleep in my bed!_

"Well, I'm gonna go now," Anna suddenly announced as she jumped out of the closet and pulled out a backpack from within.

"Huh? Where are you going?" Hide asked.

Anna looked at him and then over to where her brother was, who quickly shook his head at her.

"I need to check on something that's around here," she answered.

"Uh, okay?" the boy raised a confused eyebrow but was kicked in the back of the head by Reborn before he could ask any more questions.

"While Anna's away, you and Adam are going to be under my instruction," Reborn stated.

"Adam too?"

"Yup!" the American grinned, "Reborn's given me the honor of teaching me alongside you! You're so lucky to have such an awesome tutor, Boss!"

"I am, huh?" Hide muttered with dread, he then shook the thought from his head and told them, "I have work in downtown Namimori in a few hours."

"Can I come with?"

"No."

**~8~**

"I said you couldn't come with me!" he yelled at Adam and Reborn.

"But Boss, I'm here to protect you," the foreigner responded innocently.

"And I'm here to tutor you," stated the hitman.

"Somehow, you both aren't making very good arguments…" Hide sighed.

"What? Hide?" Hide turned around and saw his childhood friend, Suzuki Kouhei holding a wooden tub filled with fish and ice.

"Suzuki!" he brightened immediately.

"Hide, I didn't think you were coming until eleven, why so early?" Suzuki asked.

The blonde-haired Japanese grimaced and jerked a thumb at the group he had come with, "Because of _them_…"

"Hm?" he raised an eyebrow and saw Reborn and Adam standing a few feet away behind Hide, "Are they friends of yours, Hide?"

"Not even close."

"I'm Hide's tutor, Reborn."

"I'm Hide's bodyguard, Adam."

"Don't say it so bluntly!" Hide yelled.

"Ku…" Suzuki chuckled and tried holding back the laughter until he couldn't anymore, "Kahahahaha! Oh geez, Hide, you're hilarious! You got the foreign kid from school to be your bodyguard? Hahahah!"

"Geez, Suzuki…" the boy sighed and shook his head, "I don't think you fully understand the situation…"

"C-come on in," he chuckled and ignored the comment his friend had just made, he then gestured for the group to come into the old, Japanese-style restaurant, "Just pick a table and make yourselves at home since you guys are the first ones here."

They went inside and found that the inside was just like the outside: old and battered. The tables and the chairs were new and so was the sushi bar, but the floors, the paper screen windows, the creaky sliding doors, and the dim lights made the place look abandoned. As soon as they went in, Suzuki headed straight for the kitchen behind the bar.

"Suzuki, where's gramps?" Hide asked.

"He went out to the sea to get some more fish and won't come back till sundown," he hollered from inside the kitchen.

"Eh? Is that why he asked me to come?" the boy sighed, "I can't even make sushi as well as he does…"

"Don't worry, Hide," Suzuki said cheerfully as he walked out of the kitchen, "Just leave everything to me and wait on tables."

Hide looked at him doubtfully for a few seconds, but smiled helplessly. That was Suzuki for you, maybe it was his raven black hair or his calming dark eyes but Suzuki had this strange way of calming Hide and keeping him from stressing out too much. They had both gone to the same elementary school and were in the same classes up until their second year of elementary school. This, however, didn't stop their long-running friendship.

Due to the influence that Hide's grandfather had on him, Suzuki was also on the baseball team and was probably the team's best player despite being a first-year. Well-liked, respected by all his teammates and the students, not to mention he was pretty popular also, Suzuki was pretty much everything that Hide had wanted to be; cool, normal, popular, athletic, normal, nice, normal, normal…But Hide never had the stamina to be athletic nor the charisma to be cool and popular, so he had just stuck with not being outstanding in general.

"Hey Hide, I heard that you ran around town half-naked on the first day of school," Suzuki began conversationally from behind the bar, "And I saw you running around the school, too. I was in tutorials for math at the time though, so I couldn't yell out for you."

"Y-You saw me do that huh?" Hide muttered with dread.

"Yeah, I didn't know that you could even have the guts to _do _that!" he laughed cheerfully, "To think that you would run around _anywhere _naked is something that I couldn't even believe! Why didn't you tell me you were going to do it? I would've cheered you on!"

"Um, it was something that just came up suddenly…" _Yeah, Reborn shot me._

"Oh yeah, Hide, we aren't really going to open up shop for another hour," Suzuki began while shaking his head, "And I woke up early this morning to get the fish and ice ready, I even sharpened the knives too. So there's not really anything for you to do right now."

"It's okay, I'll just hang around here then," Hide shrugged.

"It's going to be busy around lunch though right?" Reborn asked.

"Hm? Well not really," Suzuki shrugged also as he wiped the counter, "The shop is old and the owner didn't reopen it until ten years ago, by then most of the regular customers were either gone or…well you know, _gone_."

"Yeah, it looks like this place hasn't been refurbished in a while," Adam observed.

"That's why we always send out flyers and coupons and stuff…" he sighed disappointedly, "But it seems that nothing will really help this place."

"Can I see one?" Reborn asked.

"Huh? Uh, sure, little guy," he nodded and handed Reborn a piece of yellow paper that came out from underneath the sushi bar.

The infant read it in silence until he finally said, "I see what the problem is, your paper is yellow."

"No-duh," Hide dead-panned.

"No, look at the shade of the yellow," Reborn pointed out, "It's almost a green color, who would want to eat from a sushi restaurant that reminds you of puke?"

"I see your point little guy!" Suzuki noted, wide-eyed as he took back the flyer, "This makes a whole lot more sense now! Can you guys help me pick out a new color for the flyer?"

They all agreed and he got out a box full of different colored paper. He took out one piece of paper that was a different color for all of them to examine.

"What about red?"

"That gives off a powerful vibe, but for a restaurant, you don't want people to think of blood."

"Purple?" He pulled another sheet from the box.

"Purple's too moody."

"White?"

"White blends in too much, it doesn't stand out." Reborn dismissed.

"Green and yellow are out of the question, so what about orange?" Suzuki suggested while holding a bright orange paper.

"Orange is an idiot's color."

"Uh, okay…what about blue?"

"Blue…" Reborn thought about it, "Blue can remind people of sadness, but a light blue should be fine, especially for a sushi restaurant."

"Perfect, then!" Suzuki exclaimed happily, "Thanks...uh, Reborn, right? You guys can have some sushi then, on the house! You guys just have to wait until opening time okay?"

"Okay," both Adam and Reborn nodded.

**~8~**

"Th-they ate all the sushi twenty minutes after opening…" Hide paled as he stared at the massive amount of empty plates with amazement.

"Wow, Hide. Your friends sure have large appetites," Suzuki spoke while trying to maintain his calm demeanor.

"The sushi was okay," Reborn shrugged as he cleaned his teeth almost comically with a toothpick and burped.

"You ate most of it!" his student yelled.

"I'm gonna go and look for some more fish in the freezer, it won't be as fresh but it'll do for today," Suzuki announced before walking back into the kitchen.

Hide turned to Reborn and Adam and groaned, "Geez, what am I supposed to do with you guys? You could've at least stopped when you ate the first three portions!"

"Boss, you need to know something about me," Adam began; he abruptly stood up, rested his hands on Hide's shoulder and with a completely serious face stated, "I can't help myself."

"That's a ridiculous excuse!"

"It might be, but it's true," he shrugged and sat back down in his chair to resume picking his teeth with a toothpick.

"Don't worry you guys. Luckily, the old man remembered to plug the freezer in last night," Suzuki announced cheerfully as he came back from the kitchen, "We'll have to wait for them to thaw, but we'll have enough sushi for the end of the day. As long as your friends don't eat it all, hahaha!"

The boy laughed this off and went back into the kitchen to prepare the fish. Meanwhile, Hide stayed in his spot and waited for Suzuki to go before eyeing Reborn and Adam carefully and suspiciously.

"Did you guys hear that?" he asked them but they were both too busy looking through the menu again, "Did you guys just come here to eat then?"

"Hm?" Adam looked up from his menu and warned, "Believe it or not Boss, your life is actually in danger."

"Don't start up with stupid excuses!" he hissed.

"It's not stupid, Hide," Reborn looked up from behind his own menu and affirmed, "You are the heir to the Vongola Family. It would not be strange if people want you dead."

"Exactly, take that guy who hired me and my sister," Adam plained, "If you didn't offer that whole Vongola Protection plan for us, you would be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by now."

"Does that mean that the person who hired Hide was male?" the infant asked.

"I never said that."

"Can't we do the same with other assassins then?" Hide wondered as he felt the subject at hand was slipping away.

"That probably won't work, we Grandharts have our _own _circumstances for joining you," the foreigner answered, "Plus we think you're a pretty nice guy and we're the type of assassins that listen to our victims first, as long as they don't try to kill us back. Point is, if the person who had hired us had hired anyone else first then you would have been killed without even knowing it."

Hide's mouth hung open at what Adam said while the foreigner looked calmly back to his menu.

_So this is hell now, huh? _he thought.

**~8~**

The day passed by fairly quickly since there were only five actual customers that had come into the restaurant. Hide was stuck with waiting on tables, busing them, and also making sure Reborn and Adam didn't eat the restaurant out of business.

"You can go home now, Hide," Suzuki told him from the kitchen as he wiped the bar counter clean for what could have been the eightieth time that day.

"I can? Aren't there gonna be anymore customers?" the boy asked.

"Nah, most of the customers only come around the afternoon and lunch, so I'm gonna close up early and wait for the old man to come back."

"Okay then." Hide nodded and looked over to Adam and Reborn to tell them to get ready to leave, they were both rubbing their stomachs contently.

"Now we'll be home in time for dinner," Reborn noted.

"You both already ate!" Hide yelled at them and followed them as they left.

Suzuki chuckled at the display and to himself as resumed the task of cleaning the bar and places where Hide had failed to get at. As night fell, Suzuki found himself watching sports on the small tv on the bar when the door slid open, he looked up and smiled brightly at the newcomer.

"Welcome back Mr. Yamamoto!" he said, "What kind of fish did you get today?"

An old, fit Japanese man had entered the restaurant. He had a bright grin on his face and was wearing blue work pants, a dirty apron, and an equally dirty long sleeved shirt, his head was covered with a grey hat, the kind of hat that old men wear when they are going to work in a dirty place early in the morning. Wrinkles edged his eyes and creased his forehead, more of them were at the corners of his grinning face decorating a thin and almost faded scar on his chin. The man had slung over his shoulder a hoard of fish and under another arm a large tuna.

"Got some tuna and a good deal on some fish that were caught this afternoon!" he laughed heartily, "What's up with you? Did my grandson come today?"

Suzuki nodded cheerfully and said, "Hide came. He came with a friend from school and some baby dressed in a suit. Oh, and get this; he said that the baby was his tutor! Isn't that hilarious?"

"Tutor, huh?" Yamamoto mumbled thoughtfully as he walked to the back of the kitchen to put the fish away, "Looks like something is gonna happen…"

"What'd you say old man?" Suzuki asked.

"Nothing, nothing," the man shook his head as he hauled the fish into the freezer and grinned widely, "Just remembering old times! Hahah!"

**~8~**

"Quit eating my food!" Hide yelled as Adam and Reborn stole his food off of the plate, "Didn't you guys eat enough at Gramps' restaurant?"

"Oh my, Hide-kun, I'll get you another plate," said his mother as she got up to get more food, "How was work at Takesushi?"

"It was okay," he shrugged, "We ran out of fish, but there was more in the freezer."

"Oh my, was dad there at least?" she asked.

"Nope, gramps was out by the sea today."

"Geez, that dad of mine is so selfish sometimes, sending kids out to handle a restaurant all on their own!" she huffed as she handed her son the plate, "You know, ever since I was little he would always take off and go who knows where and come back who knows when without telling me or mom! Just up and disappear, oh my, and then he would come back all smiling and stuff like nothing every happened! I don't know why mom stayed married to that guy for so long!"

"You know, Hide," said Reborn, "That Suzuki Kouhei seemed like a very capable candidate as a member of your family."

"Whatever you're thinking about, stop right now!" the boy instantly shot the idea down.


	9. Ch 9: Like Oil and Water

The day was bright and cheerful. The warm air of summer was carried by the wind gently and not too strongly. The clouds gave welcomed shade to the inhabitants beneath them. Everything was perfect. Except, that is, when Hanabi met Suzuki.

"Suzuki Kouhei…huh?" she said suspiciously while surveying the boy carefully.

"Yup," he nodded cheerfully, impervious to the obvious hate-vibes that were coming off the girl.

"Gokudera-san, Suzuki has been my friend since we were kids," Hide began cautiously, "_Don't kill him_."

"Hahah! Good joke Hide!" Suzuki laughed and slapped the boy on the back.

Hanabi's eye twitched in annoyance and she yelled, "Boss, I can _not _allow this, this, this..." she waved a hand for emphasis, "_moron_ to be a part of the Family!"

"Gokudera-san!" he hissed.

"Family? What's that?" the black-haired boy asked.

"It's the Mafia," Reborn said bluntly, he had once again randomly appeared out of no where this time from a wall tile.

Hide grimaced, as he knew where this was probably going to lead to. So how did he end up in this situation? Well…

**~8~**

_30 minutes ago…_

Hide sat in his living room, watching television on the couch while eating out of a bag of chips, Adam sat next to him in the lounge chair that was next to the couch. Reborn walked into the living room and looked at the scene of lazy teens in the summer.

"Mama says that she needs leeks from the store," the infant announced, "I said you would do it, Hide."

"I can't," the teen replied, "My favorite show is going to be on in two minutes."

In the next two minutes Hide was being dragged out of the house by Reborn with a fresh bruise on the back of his head.

"I'll go with you, Boss!" said a female voice; Hanabi suddenly appeared from behind the gate that was in front of his house.

"What?" Hide asked.

"I said I'll go with you," she repeated, "Reborn-san called me over to play, it wasn't like I was doing anything important at the time!"

Hanabi was dressed in a white t-shirt with a golden star on it and in camouflage cargo pants with matching camouflage converse shoes. The dirt marks, scratches, and small blood stains on her shirt and legs were most notable.

_She was definitely doing something…_Hide grimaced.

"Good luck on your mission Boss!" Adam waved from the door way.

"Don't call going to the grocery store a mission, and aren't you my body guard?" he asked.

"Well, if the Smoking Bomb is going with you, then there's really no point in me going with you," the foreigner shrugged, "I can trust her with protecting your life for me."

Hide could tell that Hanabi was absolutely flattered by this and she started to swell with pride, mainly because she said, "I'll protect you Boss!" and then she grabbed his arm and ran off.

It took Hide fifteen minutes to actually get to his feet while Hanabi was still running. "Gokudera-san!" he began while still running, "Calm down! We're just going to the grocery store!"

Hanabi froze in her tracks, causing Hide to experience inertia and doing a complete 180, as she gave Hide a threatening look and said, "We can't Twelfth, there's something dangerous in Namimori!"

This freaked Hide out a little bit and he said shakily, "D-Dangerous!?"

"That's right!" she nodded and began in a spooky voice, "I saw it this morning while I was walking around downtown- I was just walking ya know? Just minding my own business, when this creepy old man came up to me and said, 'Can I help you, little girl?' and I said 'No you creeper,' and then he said, 'Nonsense! Kids these days are so skinny! You're like a stick, come and I'll treat you to some ramen!' and I was like, 'I don't frickin' like ramen, you creepy old bastard. Now get out of my way!' and he was all weird and stuff and kept on talking about different types of food, and, and…"

Hide drowned her out at this point. The constant 'and's were beginning to bug him and it turned out that later on in the story nothing dangerous had happened at all, making him wonder why Hanabi told him all this in the first place.

"And so I was like-" she began but stopped suddenly.

"What is it Hanabi?" Hide asked.

She looked around and whispered, "Someone's been following us."

The young Boss' eyes widened and he leaned in to whisper, "This whole time?"

"Yeah," she nodded quietly.

"W-What do we do?" Hide asked while imagining all the worse situations.

"Don't worry Twelfth!" the silver-haired female winked proudly, causing Hide to think of much worse situations, "I'll take care of this!"

With that, she tip-toed her way to the corner and tackled the first thing she saw that came around it. Then, she immediately stopped beating the person up as soon as she heard Hide yell, telling her to get off of Suzuki.

**~8~**

"Mafia?" Suzuki questioned and then asked, "Is that some sort of new MMORPG Hide?"

"Yeah!" the blonde-haired boy nodded quickly before his tutor could say anything else.

"A-what?" Hanabi asked.

"Y-You know Gokudera-san," Hide said quickly, "A _Massive_ _Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game_."

"A-_what_?" she asked again, this time even more confused.

"You should join it too Suzuki Kouhei," said Reborn.

"REBORN!" the boy hissed.

"Eh? Hey, aren't you that kid that ate all the sushi in the restaurant that one time?" he said and bent down to be almost at level with Reborn, "Haha, how'd you know my whole name kid?"

"A hitman knows his target inside out," the infant replied.

Suzuki smiled sincerely and asked, "Oh? You're a hitman huh? It must be troublesome to be one at such a young age."

Reborn shrugged and said, "You live with it."

"I see, I see," he nodded understandingly.

_He's going along with it!?_ Hide gawked.

"The Boss is Hide," Reborn continued, "You should join the Family too."

"Really then?" he grinned and looked over to Hide who flinched a little, "If that's so, I want to be in Hide's Family too."

"What!?" the boy gawked.

"Relax, Hide," the baseball player winked at his friend, "You know how we used to play those pretend games when we were little, right?"

_This is not the same thing Suzuki!_ Hide grimaced.

"Very well, you may join," Reborn nodded in approval.

"Wait! Wait a second!" Hanabi interrupted, "Reborn-san, Boss, I will _not_ allow this idiot to just outright join the Vongola!"

"Vongola? Is that a type of food?"

"_See_?"

Hide relaxed a little; at least now he could tell Suzuki that if Hanabi didn't want him to join so strongly, then he just couldn't join. It was a perfect plan until Reborn said:

"I thought this would happen, so I arranged an entrance test."

"You did?" said Hanabi with delight.

"You _did_?" said Hide with horror.

"But Hanabi, you'll have to take the test as well since you haven't taken one yet," the infant added.

"No problem Reborn-san!" she said excitedly, "This'll be a great chance to show off in front of the Twelfth!"

"An entrance test then?" Suzuki grinned, "What do we have to do?"

"There are two parts to the test. First, there's a written part," he said, and held in his hands two sheets of paper which they both took eagerly.

They stared at the paper for a few seconds before Hanabi looked up to Reborn and said, "Um, Reborn-san this has only one question on it."

"Then answer it," he said.

Hanabi sighed and looked back to the question at hand, it was a fairly easy question for her. The question was: 1/2x +1/2(1/2x + 1/2(1/2x +1/2(1/2x + ...) = y, find x.

"Y is equal to one and X is equal to one so Y equals X," she immediately answered.

"EH? Are you serious!?" Hide gawked at the speed she solved it.

"Yeah, my tutors taught me this when I was eight."

"You had tutors too?"

"Hanabi comes from a prestigious family within the Mafia Underworld," said Reborn, he looked over to Suzuki who looked like he was struggling with his problem, "How's it going Suzuki?"

He looked up and grinned sheepishly, "Ah, well this question looks pretty hard to me…"

Suzuki held up his question for everyone to see: x + 12 = 15, find x

"Suzuki has never been good at math," Hide pointed out.

"Yup, Hide here's my failure buddy!" the boy laughed.

Hanabi laughed at him and said while cackling, "You can't even do something like _that_!?"

Suzuki laughed along with her and said, "Well I'm not really cut out for math problems, hahah!" And with that he threw the paper and pencil over his shoulder and quickly forgot about it.

"You both pass," said Reborn.

"What!?" Hanabi yelled.

"Cool!" Suzuki grinned.

"A hitman needs to be smart, but he doesn't need math problems," he explained.

"How are you even grading them!?" Hide grimaced.

**~8~**

They had gotten to a deserted part of Namimori, where all the buildings had been deserted for a long time and were now just empty warehouses and empty buildings that had supposedly been forgotten. It used to be the central part of Namimori, Hide remembered his mom telling him this; it was once the Shopping District, but things changed in fifty years.

"Wow, there are still light poles here?" said Hide when he spotted the poles lining the streets.

"I bet they run on electricity still," said Suzuki from besides him, "My history teacher said that they did, before they started running off of hydropower."

"What the heck is up with this red trashcan?" Hanabi asked while kicking a red mailbox.

Reborn watched them wonder at the old town for a few seconds until announcing, "The next part is a physical one."

"This one will be easy," said Suzuki brightly.

"Finally, a chance to show off my physical skills to Twelfth!" the silver-haired girl muttered to herself.

"There are several sections to the physical test," Reborn began to explain; "There's endurance, flexibility, and aim. We're going to start with aim."

_This one'll be easy!_ Hanabi grinned and looked over to Suzuki who was grinning brightly, _I'll show you up you pretty boy baseball idiot!_

"You'll need to hit this target over there," Reborn pointed to a target that was on top of a warehouse building.

"How did you even get that up there so fast?" Hide dared to ask.

"A hitman always plans ahead," he said.

_So…he planned all this huh?_ the boy thought.

"Get out of the way baseball idiot!" Hanabi pushed Suzuki out of the way as she took out a playing card, "This distance is nothing for me!"

"W-wait Gokudera-san!" Hide yelped.

"Don't worry Boss, these cards are my training cards," she said cheerfully, "They don't explode."

Hide sighed with relief as Hanabi readied her aim and noticed Reborn holding a deck of playing cards in his hand. He tugged on Hanabi's jeans and she looked down to him.

"You can't use those cards, use these instead," he said, "I modified them just for this occasion."

"For me Reborn-san?" she said with endearment and exchanged the deck for the one she had, she froze before throwing them and frowned, "Thanks, but these seem a bit heavier."

"Don't worry about it," he said dismissively.

"Well…if you say so Reborn-san…" she said taking out a card and readied her aim before she threw it towards the target on the building. The card spun through the air, hitting the target with ease before it exploded.

"W-What!?" Hide screamed, "I thought you said you modified them!"

"I switched her training cards with special Vongola Cards," Reborn explained, "Instead of the explosive chemical compounds she uses, I put in gun powder. It's not as effective as hers though and it only gives the cards enough power as your average cherry bomb."

_WHY would you do that!?_ he grimaced.

"Twelfth! Twelfth look!" said Hanabi with awe and complete and total obliviousness that it was just gunpowder, "My throw was so powerful that it made the target explode!"

_Does she seriously think that's what happened!?_

"Way to go, Hanabi," Reborn congratulated.

_He's going along with it!_

"You're next, Suzuki," the infant said.

"Beat _that_ Suzuki Kouhei!" The silver-haired bomber said smugly.

Suzuki looked up at the roof top thoughtfully before pointing at it and saying, "I can't, you blew up the target."

"You both pass," the infant said instantly.

"I do?"

"He _does_?"

"A hitman needs both aim and perception," was the excuse.

_How does any of this even work out…?_ Hide grimaced as they went on to the next test.

**~8~**

"Now we'll do the endurance part," said Reborn, they were now inside one of the warehouses that was about the same size of the track field at Namimori Middle. Reborn took out a suitcase and held out two thick, black bands that were for the use of Suzuki and Hanabi.

"These are weights," he said, "You will both wear them and run two miles with these things on."

"How heavy are they?" Hide asked as Hanabi took one of the bands and dropped it as soon as she held onto it, the cement underneath cracked the moment it hit the cement.

"How heavy do you think?" the infant said innocently to Hide's horrified look.

"O-Okay, I'm ready now…" she eagerly said as she readied herself with the weights on, her entire body was shaking with the weights on her wrists and ankles, "B-Bring it on pretty-boy!"

"Wow these are pretty heavy!" Suzuki chuckled as he flexed his arm with the weights on, "What are these, eighty pounds?"

"Eighty-five actually," said Reborn.

"That's not more than I can bench press," he said with delight and readied himself in a good running position, he was completely unfazed by the weight, "I think my record was actually a hundred and five pounds."

"B-Bench press?" Hanabi questioned.

"It's lifting weights on your back," Hide explained, "Suzuki is one of the best players on the baseball team."

"Che, let's just get this over with," she sneered as Reborn shot the lime-green starting gun in his hand.

They took off…at a slow pace. The weights were holding down Hanabi from her actual speed-potential, and Suzuki couldn't run that fast to begin with especially with weights on. Nevertheless, Suzuki was still going faster due to the fact that he actually did do daily exercise routines unlike Hanabi. The race took a while, but it was finally over and they both tied with each other; Hanabi collapsed to the ground while Suzuki rested his hands on his waist and breathed heavily.

"You both tied," said Reborn with a stop watch, "Your time is thirty minutes and twenty-seven seconds."

"I…I hate…running!" Hanabi panted as she tried to get off the ground.

"You should probably take off the weights," Suzuki suggested as he unbuckled the bands.

"Shut up," she grumbled and took the off, she sighed with relief as the weights came off and rubbed her wrists.

"You both pass," Reborn said with approval.

"Yeah," Hanabi said passively.

"Cool," said Suzuki while trying to catch his breath.

_They're too tired to be happy_, Hide noted.

**~8~**

They were now in a different warehouse; there were blue mats on the ground and Reborn appeared in a pink leotard with a green headband, and to Hide's horror, started doing stretches.

"Now we'll do the flexibility part of the test." Reborn said while still doing the stretches. "Just touch your feet to the ground without bending your knees."

There was silence; was it really that easy? Compared to the other challenges this one sounded way too easy, and there wasn't any way for Hanabi to mess this up for Suzuki.

"Is that all?" she asked.

"Yes, that's all," he said, "It's harder than it looks, though especially if you haven't done it in a while."

"Hah! I'll just finish this quickly so I can get this over with!" said Hanabi; she could now taste the sweet succulent taste of victory over her new rival.

"Go ahead when you're ready," said Reborn.

_Hmph, flexibility…hah!_ Hanabi laughed in head, _I'll mop the floor with this guy, just watch, Twelfth!_

_Please don't kill him! Please don't kill him! Please don't kill him!_ Hide prayed in his mind.

The girl bent down to touch her toes and when she did she smiled triumphantly. Victory was now hers! Sweet, sweet victory!

"Your knees aren't straight," Reborn pointed out.

She looked down and realized that her knees were indeed bending, so she straightened them out but she then realized that she was having difficulty with her finger tips touching the toes.

"What's going on here?" Hanabi growled.

"Flexibility is something you need to work at," Reborn stated, "You need to do some stretches everyday in order to be able to touch your toes. Look, not even Suzuki can do it."

Hanabi looked over to Suzuki's spot as he was sitting straight up with his hands stretched out in front of him. Hide was struggling with pushing the boy to the ground.

"H-How can you not even bend down?" Hide asked.

"Eh? You really can't push me down?" Suzuki asked obliviously.

"Since you both can't finish the test," Reborn began, "You both fail."

"NOOO!" Hanabi yelled out to the sky.

"Man, that sucks," Suzuki sighed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I'm so, _so_ sorry Twelfth!" the girl cried at Hide's feet, "I wanted to be your right-hand so badly, but a person who can't even pass an entrance exam doesn't even deserve to live!"

"I think you're taking it a little too far Gokudera-san…" he said.

"Don't worry about it, guys;" said Reborn with a cheerful smirk on his face, "since you both have tied so far, I've decided to let you both in."

"YES!" Hanabi cheered while thrusting a fist into the air.

"Isn't that great Hide?" said Suzuki to his friend, "Now we can all join!"

_That's not great! Not great at all Suzuki!!_ Hide screamed in horror in his mind.

"Twelfth! To make up for my insolence I'll work even harder to become a proper right-hand for you!" said Hanabi with determination.

_That's what I feared most!_ the boy grimaced.

"Eh? But aren't I more fitted to be Hide's right-hand man?" said Suzuki playfully, "I'm actually a man after all."

The girl took this as a threat and yelled, "It doesn't matter whether I'm a girl or not, as long as I can protect the Twelfth and serve him to the best of my ability, then _I _am most fitted to become the Twelfth's right-hand!"

"Well, I've known Hide the longest so I should be his right-hand," the boy persisted, "You can be the left-hand."

"What!?" Hanabi's face went red with vivid anger and she yelled, "Yeah right! _You_ can be the foot!"

Suzuki laughed and continued, "Then you can be the nose."

"Then you're the shoulder!"

"Elbow."

"Ear!"

"Hahah! Knee!"

"Liver!"

_Now they're just naming body parts…_Hide sighed.

"I feel like I've seen this argument before," Reborn mumbled thoughtfully to himself.

The young Boss sighed tiredly; his eyes wandered over to the sunset that the buildings crowded and realized that he had actually left his house at one in the afternoon and that the super market closed at six.

"Crap! We still haven't gone to the store to pick up those leeks!"

"Yeah I know," said his tutor dismissively.

"Then what are we doing here!?" the boy yelled, "The store closes in thirty minutes!"

"Ah, that sucks," said Suzuki sheepishly, "I would have said that I could have taken you on my bike, but four people can't ride on it."

"And there's no way in hell I'm leaving Boss with a complete idiot," Hanabi said bluntly.

"Hahah, you're hilarious Hanabi!" the baseball player laughed.

The girl's eyebrow twitched and she said in a low tone, "What did you call me bastard?"

"Enough!" Hide yelled, "We only have thirty minutes to get to the grocery store and, quite frankly, I would like to solve this problem without explosions _or_ bullets!"

They all fell silent and gave a surprised expression towards Hide. Hide himself felt a little embarrassed about the outburst but at least it got them to shut up and listen.

"Now then," he breathed out, "if we don't get those leeks, mom will probably ground me. So does anyone have a suggestion that _does not_ involve anything lethal or could possibly be lethal?"

Reborn and Hanabi put their hands down while Suzuki pondered over the problem. The boy brightened when he remembered something and said:

"I completely forgot that I just came back from finishing the deliveries!"

"What has that got to do with anything?" said Hanabi, she was slightly annoyed by the boy's cheeriness.

"I don't use my regular bike for deliveries because the sushi is usually too heavy," he explained, "So I have an old hovercycle that I use."

"A hovercycle?" Hide questioned and remembered something like it when he was little, "You mean Gramps' old hovercycle? The one that's in the backyard?"

"Yup!"

"Can't that one only go up to 40 miles per hour though?"

"It should get you to the market in time," Suzuki persisted, he grabbed Hide and Hanabi's hands and said, "C'mon! We're burning daylight after all!"

Hanabi did not like being touched, especially by a moronic, baseball playing, pretty boy. She would have yelled at him, beaten the daylights out of him, and then have him explode, but she remembered what her Boss said about not involving explosions or dangerous things. So she sighed and put up with it no matter how much it annoyed her. And it pissed her off deeply.

"Here it is!" Suzuki announced when they had gotten to a rusty, light blue machine with a pad at the bottom of it.

"I forgot how old it really was…" Hide lamented.

The hovercycle had been invented twenty years ago and the one Hide was staring at was probably a fifth generation model. Compared to the newer and sleeker models, this one was larger and used to run on gasoline but had been modified to run on carbon, which explained the giant engine in the back of it.

Hide remembered that his Gramps said that this hovercycle used to be called the Ferrari of its time, but now it was the equivalent of a giant minivan. The hovercycle consisted of an oval-shaped platform with rubber underneath it; handlebars in the front of the platform that could be raised up and down according to height; the engine was at the front of the cycle, in front of the handlebars; the hovercycle also didn't have any seats nor a roof over it incase it was raining or it was snowing, the only thing that had any actual protection on it was the engine so that it wouldn't explode or rust as quickly as the other parts did; there was also a cooler strapped to the back, probably an accessory that Hide's Gramps put on himself.

"What's with this chunk of metal?" Hanabi asked, "It looks like one of the first models of hovercrafts!"

"That's because it is," said Suzuki as he stepped onto it, "Hop on you guys! Hanabi, you can sit on the cooler if you want."

"Stop calling me so familiarly!" she yelled and got on after Hide did.

_Can you please just stop fighting!_ The young Boss groaned in his head.

**~8~**

"Oh my Hide-kun, what are you talking about?" Hide's mother asked with concern, "I never said that I needed leeks, we're having hamburgers tonight! But it's so nice of you to bring Suzuki-kun and Gokudera-chan!"

"What!?"

Hide gawked; He and his friends had just been running around town on an old, beaten up hovercycle that was threatening to die right then and there, and then _trying_ to find their way to the super market and also trying to find the item that his mother desired. And what did he get in the end? A few bruises and a bag of leeks that were almost completely trampled on.

"Please! Call me Hanabi, Twelfth's mother!" The girl spoke and bowed politely to the mother.

"Oh my, how polite," she said happily before heading back to the kitchen.

"Reborn…" Hide growled and looked around for the baby who was in the living room, watching TV with Adam. _You planned on all of this you little liar!!_

"Wow, is that the new game show that's on?" said Suzuki as he went to join them, sitting down on the couch and started to watch the TV with them.

"Huh? How boring," Hanabi shrugged but she sat down in front of the couch and joined in them as well.

"Chips?" Adam held out a bag of chips as they each took a handful and started eating.

"Don't ruin your dinner, you guys," Hide's mother warned, "It'll be ready in twenty minutes!"

"Okay," they all said in unison.

_Why are they all getting comfortable in my own home!_ Hide wondered and realized that the show he had wanted to watch earlier was on, so he sat down and watched the TV with them.

The perfect summer's day ended peacefully. They all hung around the house and watched TV and ate chips from a bag, like every other teenager would do with his friends.

**~8~**

**Hello, I just want to make a few points in Skywards for you, the reader, to understand:**

**First off-Suzuki is not the grandson of Yamamoto, he is merely Hide's childhood friend which is why he works at Takesushi now**

**Second-There will be no HanabiXHide or HanabiXSuzuki or any HanabiXwhatever! Skywards is non-kanon, nobody will 'like' anyone other than Hide likes Megumi, and that's just one-sided...or is it?**

**And Third-Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me nor does it belong to anyone except Amano Akira**


	10. Ch 10: Katsuragi Katsura

**On a side-note, I would like to thank the people that have been editing my stories so far! Grenouille-85 and Saiyukigallie! You are both mega-awesome and always catch the mistakes that I always forget are there.**

**On another side-note: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does _not_ belong to me, nor anyone that I know personally, it belongs to Amano Akira; now let us all pray to the giant flying spaghetti monster above that s/he continues Reborn!**

**~8~**

Katsura was a very happy girl. She loved animals, flowers, and rain because rainbows always appeared afterwards. Katsura claimed that she could find a happy thing in anything, in fact she often made it a game. For instance, today was her school's first day of summer, which was a happy thing, but all her friends left with their family on vacation, which was a sad thing, but she would be going to the beach next week, which was a happy thing!

Today she decided to get ready for her beach trip by going to the Namimori Shopping Center to get a bathing suit. Katsura loved shopping because you could always get new thing.

"C'mon Hanabi-chan, go ahead and show me!" a voice said, Katsura turned around and saw a red-head girl who had her hair tied up in a ponytail with a blue ribbon, the girl was talking to a changing room at the store Katsura was at.

"No way!" another girl said from within the changing room, "It shows too much skin! It's embarrassing!"

"Hanabi-chan, do you want me to go in there?" the red-head warned.

There was silence from within the changing room before it's red curtain slid open to reveal one of the prettiest girls Katsura had ever seen. She had long silver-white hair and porcelain skin, but her pale-green eyes were filled with rage and she was scowling as well which almost ruined her image of beauty. The girl was trying on a bikini that was black and white with a Spades print on it.

"How pretty!" Katsura breathed, she was apparently heard by the silver-haired girl who shot a glare towards her and everyone else in the store.

"Waaah! Hanabi-chan it looks so cute on you!" squealed the red-head in delight, "I'm so jealous of your pale skin!"

"What's there to be jealous of Megumi?" Hanabi asked, "It only makes things more noticeable. From pimples, to bruises and even scratches!"

"That's why you have to be really careful and take care of your skin," Megumi pointed out, she picked a hanger that was apart of the bundle of clothes she had brought for the girl to try on and handed it to her, "Try on these pants! They come with a belt with skulls on it, I thought you might like!"

Hanabi suddenly looked more interested in the pants now and said, "Eh? Really?"

She took the hanger and closed the red curtain; Katsura took this chance to try and talk to Megumi so she too could join in on the conversation and probably make new friends.

"Excuse me," she began, Katsura soon realized that she had underestimated the girl's cute cheeriness; when Megumi turned around her cute smile almost blinded Katsura with a radiance only the sun could possibly have.

"Yes?" the girl asked cheerfully.

_Wha-what's up with these two girls!_ Katsura gawked, _They're like models from a magazine!_

Megumi gave her a curious look and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Eh? Ah, n-no! Not at all!" the girl shook her head and quickly left them to be. She quickly took the clothes that she had gotten to the register and quickly left the store. For some reason she felt oddly embarrassed that she could even think about being friends with such perfect looking people!

"What was I thinking!" she sighed miserably and immediately tried to think of something that would brighten her day, she remembered the bathing suit she got and cheerfully opened her bag to look at it, "I knew getting this one was a good idea! I'll go to the beach next week and have tons of fun!"

**~8~**

Katsura was a very happy girl, she loved clothes and ice cream and the park. So it was no surprise that she was currently walking in the park after her shopping venture and eating mint chocolate-chip ice cream. She licked the cone happily while humming a tune that was the theme song of her favorite TV show.

"No! No way am I doing that!" a voice yelled from a distance, but it sounded like it was getting closer to Katsura, "NOOOO!"

"C'mon Hide, all you have to do is wear this shirt for the Boxing Club!" another voice pleaded.

"No! I am _not_ wearing a shirt that says 'The Underwear Guy belongs to the Boxing Club!'" the first voice said even more stubbornly.

Katsura, curious by the strange conversation, walked a little further and behind the trees saw two boys with obvious height differences arguing. Or the argument seemed slightly one-sided since the other boy, the taller and scarier one, was pleading while the shorter boy was just refusing.

The taller boy had a huge build and looked pretty scary, but he was wearing a sweater vest, which detracted from the scariness, and Katsura thought that anyone who would get down on his knees to ask for something wasn't a bad guy. The shorter boy was much more feminine looking and was blonde haired, which made Katsura wonder if he was half-Japanese.

"Please Hide?"

"No!"

"You should do it Hide," said a squeaky voice, a small baby wearing a black suit with a fedora and a yellow pacifier was peacefully relaxing on a rock, "Think of it as a lesson."

"What a cute baby!" Katsura immediately exclaimed, she ran over to the baby and started awing at it, "Hello there!"

"Ciaossu," the infant greeted.

"My name's Katsura! What's yours?"

"Reborn."

"Waaah~! How cute!" Katsura squealed in delight, "Why are you dressed in a suit Reborn-chan?"

"Because I'm a hitman," the baby answered.

"Reborn!" Hide hissed, "I've told you to stop saying those things in public!"

"It's only the truth."

"Look miss, I'm sorry for-," the boy began but stopped when he was slapped in the face.

"How dare you!" Katsura began shakily, Hide and the taller boy gave her questioning looks while she continued with her hand still raised, "A child is the most innocent thing in the world! How could you boys corrupt such a delicate angel!?"

_Did she just call Reborn innocent and delicate?_ Hide wondered but said out loud, "I'm sorry miss, but I have no clue what you're talking about!"

"Excuses!" Katsura claimed and pointed an accusing finger at them, "In the name of the Katsuragi family I will not allow this to continue!"

"Huh!?" the boys gawked.

"I challenge you…um…" the girl stopped yelling and asked, "what was you're name?"

"Eh? Uh, Sawada Hideyoshi?"

"Then I, Katsuragi Katsura, challenge you, Sawada Hideyoshi!"

"Wait, your _name_ is Katsuragi Katsura?" the taller boy asked.

"My parents aren't very good with names," she explained and then shook her head to get the anger back in, "That's not the point! I'll get you one of these days Sawada Hideyoshi!"

The girl stormed away from them, or at least tried to but she tripped and fell face first on the grass, she got back up and ran out in both embarrassment and anger. Hide gawked at the exit and noticed that the girl had dropped her ice cream cone on the ground when she had fallen.

"Hide, did you know that girl?" Sakuraba Morita asked.

"No, and I don't think I want to!" he quickly said.

**~8~**

As it turned out, Katsura quickly forgot about the whole thing as soon as she passed by a pet store and decided to fawn over the cute puppies in the store's window.

**~8~**

Hide was jogging around the town in the beautiful early morning, if by jogging you meant being chased by two professional and if by beautiful you meant that it was pouring rain.

"C'mon Boss, you have to run faster if you want don't want to be beaten up," said Adam as he ran after the boy with a baseball bat in his hand, "And I really don't want to break your legs."

"Then don't!" he yelled back to him.

"It's okay Adam," said Reborn from the foreigner's shoulder, "You can go a little faster and push the threats more, think of it as target practice."

"Are you sure?" Adam asked, he immediately caught up with the soon-to-be-Boss and whispered darkly, "Who's ready to die?"

"Eeeeeek!!" Hide shrieked and quickened his pace.

"Oh, it worked!" the foreigner brightened as he ran faster.

"Maybe this will work as well," said Reborn as he shot the ground around Hide's feet.

"Quit shooting!" he screamed.

The boy ran faster but soon his foot hooked onto the back of his other leg causing him to fall straight into the mud. Hide wiped the mud off his face and looked up at the helpful hand that was being held out by Adam.

"Looks like you're a little tired Boss," he said while he helped him up.

"Who wouldn't be tired at six in the morning?" Hide said tiredly.

"Well when we get home, you'll be able go back to sleep," the boy said brightly.

"Ah! You!" a voice exclaimed, Hide looked at the source which was a girl with short, black hair wearing a bright blue raincoat.

"It's you!" Hide replied while pointing at the girl, "Katsuragi-san right?"

"And you're, uh…?"she tried to grasp a name for a second before exclaiming, "Sanada Hiroshi!"

Hide's sweat dropped and he said, "Um, no, it's Sawada Hideyoshi."

"Is this girl a nuisance to you Boss?" Adam asked.

"A little," he sighed and then said to her, "Are you here to challenge me like you said yesterday?"

Katsura's face went red and she said stubbornly, "O-of course!"

Now in all truth, Katsura always woke up at six in the morning every day, even on weekends and vacations. Loving rain so much, she had decided to go outside and splash in the rain in her brand new rain boots. And that was when she saw Hide and Adam. It should also be noted that Katsura had completely forgotten the events that had happened the day before.

"Look now, can we just sort of forget about the whole thing?" Hide asked, "It's really early and I'm tired, plus it's too troublesome."

"Are you afraid you might get beaten up by a girl Hide?" Reborn asked, the boy's face immediately went red and he yelled:

"Of course not!"

"Seems that way to me Boss," Adam agreed.

"Me too," Katsura nodded and then suddenly realized something, "B-Boss!?"

"Oh yeah, I've told you to quit calling me that Adam-san!" Hide scolded.

"Can't help it Boss, its instinct!" the foreigner joked.

"It attracts too much attention!"

While their little argument was going on many thoughts ran through Katsura's head: _Boss!? Is he some sort of gang leader? This foreigner guy is handsome, but he looks so mysterious! He _must_be part of the same gang as this guy! And that other guy yesterday was pretty scary looking, no wonder he's in the same gang…_And so the thoughts continued to run through her head until she summed up that they're whole goal was to be a bad influence on Reborn, which doesn't make sense no matter how you see it but, hey, this is how the story's supposed to go.

"Waah!" she screamed in horror, "G-gang members! Are you guys yakuza!?"

"Yakuza?" Hide gawked at the sudden outburst.

"No we're mafia," Adam automatically answered.

"Don't say that!" the young boss yelled.

"Mafia!?" the girl exclaimed.

"No! We're not!" Hide quickly said and was slapped for the second time by the girl.

"How dare you!" she repeated, "I now remember why I was so mad at you! You corrupt the minds of young children by influencing them to join your gang!"

_That's so wrong!_ he grimaced.

"I can just tell from the look on your face that I'm right!" Katsura yelled.

_That's wrong also!_

Katsura shot a glare towards Adam, which made even the assassin take a step back in fear, and she stomped over to Reborn and said:

"This child is in no circumstances to be in _your _care!"

She tried picking him up but Reborn quickly maneuvered himself away and said, "Don't touch me so easily."

"Huh?" Katsura blinked and tried to get the baby again, but this time fell face first in a puddle.

"I told you not to touch me so easily," he repeated.

"Ack!" Hide paled, he quickly held out a hand for the girl to try help her up while saying, "Sorry Katsuragi-san, but Reborn doesn't like to be touched."

The girl slapped his hand away and glared, or at least _tried_ to glare, at him.

"Then don't _you_ touch me," she said in a low tone, Katsura stood up while keeping her fixed gaze on Hide and continued, "It's obvious that this poor child doesn't want to be touched because he had some sort of mentally scarring event happen to him!"

_No it's not!_ Hide screamed in his head, _He just doesn't like to be touched!_

"Don't worry Reborn-chan!" she continued, "I'll save you from this horrible, _horrible_ man!"

"I don't need saving."

"This poor, poor child!" she exclaimed before running away, leaving both Hide and Adam utterly confused.

"Was that a friend of your Boss?" Adam asked.

"No!" the boy shook his head hurriedly.

**~8~**

Katsura went back to her home and thought up a plan to get Reborn away from Hide. Since the infant was rather quick for his age, it would be impossible to just take him; if Katsura had tried to bribe Reborn with candy and food, then she would be just as bad as that Hide! Plus he was a gang leader, which would probably mean death if she just outright won in a challenge against him. So Katsura's smarts and years of watching crime dramas led this girl to come to the conclusion that she would have to kill Hide and become a Mafia Boss herself.

Of course this conclusion would make no sense to anyone else other than Katsura.

"I _will_ kill Sakada Mutoshi!" she proclaimed while also forgetting Sawada Hideyoshi's name again.

**~8~**

Hide yawned as he walked across the shiny, wet sidewalk idly with a grocery bag dangling in one hand. The rain had stopped about an hour before and right after it had stopped, his mother had asked him to go to the super market to buy lettuce. Adam was out on a different errand from Hide's mother and Reborn was taking his afternoon nap, Hide rarely stumbled upon a chance to be alone these days so he quickly took it before Reborn had woken up from his nap.

His sneakers squeaked as he walked across the bridge on the way home and stopped when he saw a bizarre figure stumbling towards him. The figure was wearing a red ski mask and elbow and shin guards tied around the sweat suit it was in. Hide coudn't help but gawk at the display as the figure was blindly swinging a hockey stick in his direction, though the person was still too far away to actually hit Hide.

"Great, _another_ wierd person has shown up!" Hide muttered while feeling oddly embarrassed for the figure.

The figure said something that was incomprehensible to the human ear, the figure swiftly took off the mask, revealing a girl underneath, and started to breathe heavily.

"W...Wakada...Hitoshi...here to...kill...you..." she panted.

"Are you here to kill me?" Hide asked.

"Y-Yeah," she said while still panting, she swallowed some air and stood up straight while exclaiming, "Takana Hakeda! I am here to kill you!"

"That's not even my name!" he yelled.

The girl looked confused for a few seconds and said, "Eh? It's not?"

"No!" Hide yelled in frustration, "Sa-wa-da Hi-de-yo-shi! Sawada Hideyoshi! And why are you trying to kill me!?"

"Because you are corrupting the morals of young children by influencing them to join your gang!" she stated, "You are endangering Reborn-chan's life just by being near him!"

_No, that relationship is the exact opposite between me and Reborn..._Hide thought.

"Now," she said before she pulled the ski mask on, "prepare to die, Sawada Hideyoshi!"

Katsura swung the hockey stick down on Hide, who barely avoided it and repeatedly barely avoided it. Each swing was strangely accurate as Hide tried to avoid them by screaming and flailing about, he continued to do so until he backed into the handrail on the bridge. He shut his eyes as the stick came down but when nothing happened and when he heard the girl scream out, he opened his eyes and saw Hanabi's silver-white hair in front of him. She had one arm extended, the hand holding onto the stick, Hanabi sent Katsura an evil stare but when she noticed Hide looking at her, she immediately brightened and turned her glare into a happy-go-lucky smile.

"Don't worry Boss! I'll take care of this nuisance!" she said with confidence.

Katsura had let go of the hockey stick by now and was backing away, "Ack! The pretty girl!"

Hanabi reached out to grab Katsura, but the girl tripped and fell off the bridge. No thanks to the rain from before, the river's current was now rough and dangerous causing Katsura to be carried away by the river.

"Help! Help!" the fallen girl cried out.

Hide and Hanabi ran to the handrail and watched the girl be carried away.

"The current's too fast!" said the silver haired girl, "She'll drown before we get any help!"

"This all my fault!" Hide wailed.

"Then why don't _you_ save her?" the boy didn't have time to reply or turn around to see the source of the voice, but he _could_ take a rather well guess as to who it was.

The bullet went through Hide's head, causing the now unconscious boy to fall into the river. Many thoughts went through Hide's head as his body went over the rail, he was gonna _die_ if not by the Dying Will Bullet then by the river. Hide's body flew down towards the river, he was going to die with a girl too, a completely innocent bystander! The cold, muddy water splashed as he fell into it, if only he had the _strength_ to save her...if only...

**~8~**

Katsura was going to die, or she was dead already. She wasn't entirely sure since she had blacked out, but she could still remember some vague memories. She could remember Hide diving into the river to save her, and he quickly swam out with his surprisingly bulk muscles.

Aaah, that would've have been _nice_ of him to do that...Now, she could hear her name being called out. "Katsura! Katsura!" she could hear, must be her dead relatives...but she was pretty sure that a bunch of old people didn't sound like that young boy. She opened her eyes and saw the really pretty girl and her saviour, Hide.

"Katsuragi-san! Katsuragi-san, are you alright?" he asked with sincere concern.

"Y-yeah," she nodded, her face felt hot and she could feel her heart beat fast.

"Thank goodness!" he sighed with relief, "Who knows what would have happened if you were hurt!"

Katsura's face went a deep red, this feeling...was it...?

"Say your thanks to the Twelfth," Hanabi ordered, "If something would have happened to you, you wouldn't even be alive."

The girl clutched her shirt and said outloud, "This feeling..." they all leaned in to hear what she was saying, "Is it...love?"

"HUUUUH!?" Hide screamed.

"What!?" Hanabi gawked.

"Yes, that must be it!" she nodded confidently, "You saved me even though I threatened to kill you! Surely you are the one I am meant to be with!"

"No! That's a complete and total misunderstanding!" he said quickly.

"At first I thought you were a bad thing!" she continued, "But now I can see that you are a good thing! An _extra_ special good thing!"

_This girl is completely out of her mind!_ he thought but said, "Weren't you going to save Reborn or something?"

"I can easily forget about your mafia-thingy, Hi-de-yo-shi~!" she said cutely.

"Look here Katsuragi-san..." Hide began cautiously.

"Please! call me Katsura-chan, or Katsu-chan, or anything you want! Oh, and I can call you Hide-kun right?"

_I'd rather not be called that anymore for some reason..._he thought.

"Hide-kun~!" Katsura giggled.

_Insane! She's completely insane!_ Hide screamed in his head.

**~8~**

**On another side-note: Skywards, however, does belong to me except for the Reborn!-related stuff, that's Amano Akira**


	11. Ch 11: A Benjamin Button theme

**Note from the Author: Hello, Echan again. My Word Document is still being messed up so I still cannot properly check the grammar and spelling errors. This chapter's short too, it was only written to introduce a pivotal (or something along those lines) character and to also introduce the next arc for Skywards. Hopefully you will all like the next arc...**

**~8~**

Two high-heeled shoes walked across the Shopping Center of Namimori, eyes were glued to the owner of the shoes as she walked with an air of dignity that suggested that she had far more money than you could ever hope for in your life time. The pin-stripe suit she was wearing did not seem to affect her body temperature at all on this hot Summer's day. The woman stepped her way across Namimori before stopping in the middle of the street to take off her sunglasses and set them on the opening of her suit jacket.

"Japanese Summers are in no comparison to Italy's," she stated before being hit by a bike.

"What?" Hide asked, he was in his bedroom doing the homework that had been assigned over the summer.

"Did I say something?" Reborn asked, he sat on Hide's bed sipping tea rather comfortably.

"Yeah, you just said 'Oh' like you remembered something," he said, he was slightly getting more and more annoyed at Reborn as the home tutor had been slurping the tea noisily this whole time.

"I did, did I?" the hitman-infant said thoughtfully before slurping his tea again, "Well, if you must know I think I remember someone from the Vongola Family is coming to visit and check on your progress."

"What? You mean another hitman!?" Hide shrieked in horror.

"You shouldn't be scared," his tutor shook his head, "although this person will most likely be a hitman, this person will also have taken an oath to not harm nor endanger you."

The boy blinked and leaned in cautiously towards Reborn, "S-so, you mean that they will be on their best behavior? They promised they won't kill anyone, right?"

"Yes," Reborn nodded, "if by anyone, you mean just you, then yes."

_That's not good either!_ Hide thought, luckily his mother was going to be out doing errands all day and Adam went out to 'buy books', Hide was a little suspicious about this since Adam had left with a giant bag and an overcoat on but he honestly didn't want to be caught up in whatever horrible mess Adam was involved in.

"So when are they coming?" Hide dared to ask.

"Today," Reborn replied and slurped his tea.

Hide practically fell out of his chair when he heard this, "Wha-What!?"

The door bell rang, "Looks like that person's already here."

Hide fell out of his chair (successfully this time) and stumbled down the stairs, he ran towards the door and put his hand on a pad on the wall for the door to open. And _click, _the door went and opened outwards. A woman in a pin-stripe suit was waiting for him, she had in one hand a clipboard and was looking down on Hide. She had wavy pinkish-purple hair and sharp hazel colored eyes, the woman looked about thirty or so but she still looked like she could be a model for some magazine.

"Sawada Hideyoshi, I presume?" she said in an indignant tone.

"Y-yeah," he nodded, the woman walked straight into the house and gave each and every piece of furniture a scrutinizing look.

She got out a pen and ticked something on the clipboard while shaking her head in disapproval. The woman then walked into the living room and ran a finger over the coffee table before ticking something else off the list that was on the clipboard. She almost entered the kitchen when Reborn had finally decided to appear from the entrance of the living room.

"Hello Rosario," he said.

The woman turned around and acknowledged the existence of Reborn by nodding towards him.

"Are you still not saying anything to me?" Reborn asked.

She shook her head. _There's obviously something between them..._Hide observed.

"You realize that this is a mission from the Tenth, I had to come to Japan to teach Hide," the infant continued.

The woman named Rosario shifted a glare towards Hide. _It's all my fault!?_

"I don't hate the young Twelfth for it," Rosario finally spoke and turned her glare towards Reborn, "I do however hate _you_, father!"

_Father!?_ Hide gawked, the obvious age difference between Reborn and Rosario suggested more of the opposite.

"Rosario, you shouldn't speak that way towards your father," said Reborn.

"You just left me and mom with even saying anything!" the woman yelled in frustration, "I had to find out from Gokudera-oji that you were off training the next Boss! And in Japan no less!"

Hide perked up when he heard Hanabi's first name, _Gokudera?_

"Then I am sorry," Reborn apologized, Hide was a little shocked at this because Reborn never apologized for anything, "But I _did_ tell your mother, she must be forgetting things in her old age."

Rosario was silent for a few seconds before asking, "Do you mean that, father?"

"Yes."

"Oh papa!" she leaned in and hugged the infant.

Meanwhile, Hide was confused as to whether this whole thing was a joke or not. It certainly seemed that way, but the two players were being far too serious to actually take it so far as a joke. Hide was beginning to wonder if this was not some sort Benjamin Button-effect that was going on.

"Anyways, Hide this is my daughter, Rosario," Reborn introduced in his always calm manner, "She is apart of an outside organization for the Vongola called CEDEF, she was also the supervisor for the Eleventh's children which is would mean that she is your supervisor as well."

"Wait, I have a supervisor?" Hide asked.

"Supervisor is probably not the best word to describe what I do," said Rosario thoughtfully, "It's more like an…Observer, I basically just observe what you do and where you go."

"So you're going to follow me around everywhere now?"

"No, it's just something that needs to be done every once in awhile," she said and procured her clipboard, she scribbled some things on it before continuing, "You'll probably only see me for important events or once a month, but this is just something that the Tenth established so that future Bosses don't become corrupt or inept. Don't worry about it though, the examination is mostly done by opinion and it decides whether or not you are capable of becoming a Boss or not."

Hide realized something and said, "So I can't become Boss if I fail?"

"That is correct!" she nodded cheerfully.

The boy was immediately whacked on the head by Reborn, who threatened, "Don't you even try to fail this examination, I'm not going to have one my own students fail."

"Ow! Ow! Alright, alright!" Hide nodded.

"Listens to tutor..." Rosario said while writing down and added after a few seconds, "Bruises easily."

"Don't write that down!"

"Very bossy," she said while writing.

**~8~**

The examination was long and torturous to Hide, Rosario would write down almost everything that Hide did while saying them out loud. For one thing, when she wrote down that the way he walked was like he had two left feet and that he sounded and looked like a girl, he would feel extremely embarrassed and even more self-conscious.

"Extremely self-conscious," she said out loud, the pen on the clipboard made scribbling sounds as she wrote, "And short."

Hide felt like an arrow went through his chest when he heard this, but kept trying to do his best with ignoring the comments. Finally the doorbell rang, a distraction from the over-critical Rosario.

"Oh good, now I can see how you interact with other people," Rosario said with delight.

"Oh good," Hide muttered miserably as he pressed his hand on the wall-pad for the door to open.

His eyes met with Hanabi and Suzuki, Hanabi looked pissed off that Suzuki was around her while Suzuki looked as happy and cheerful as ever. Hanabi quickly changed facial expressions when she saw Hide and bowed apologetically to him.

"I'm sorry Twelfth, but for some reason _this_ idiot followed me," she said while eyeing Suzuki with disgust.

"Yo Hide!" Suzuki waved.

"Hey Suzuki, Gokudera-san," the boy nodded and invited them in.

"What's wrong Hide? You seem a bit down," Suzuki asked.

Hide looked around until he spotted Rosario from the door way, he jerked a thumb towards her and said miserably, "_She_ is what's wrong."

"Who?" Hanabi looked over to the woman and immediately went pale, she covered her mouth and ran out of the house quickly.

"Gokudera-san!" Hide said worriedly as the girl was now making very colorful noises in his front yard.

"Gokudera?" Suzuki questioned, he ran over to the girl and helped pull her hair out of the way.

Once she was done with...you know, she was lying on the grass while clutching at her stomach as if incase her guts decided to fall out. She was deathly pale and was muttering, "A-Aunt Rosario...?"

"Yes?" Rosario popped her head out to the door and noticed Hanabi's sickly form, "Hanabi? So you really did go to Japan despite your poor health? You're so brave."

"Y-yeah, poor health," Hanabi nodded weakly while resisting the urge to throw up or faint.

"Let's get her onto your couch, Hide," said Suzuki, "She probably had something bad to eat."

"No, I-I'm fine," she said while trying to stand back up.

"You really should get some rest Hanabi," said Rosario, she now stood right in front of the girl.

"Flarghljaeb!" Hanabi fell back to the ground while groaning.

"Gokudera-san!"

"Gokudera!"

**~8~**

Hanabi opened her eyes weakly and saw the swirling fan on Hide's living room ceiling, she moved her head, which was feeling much better, and saw Hide and Suzuki sitting on the ground. They were both watching her carefully and quickly stood up when Hanabi woke up.

"Gokudera-san, what happened? Are you still sick?" her Boss asked.

"Wha-? Um, no," she shook her head and sat up, "No...there was something that made me sick here...what was it...?" And then she remembered and grimaced, "_Her_."

"You mean Rosario-san?" Hide asked.

"Aunt Rosario..." Hanabi said grimly, "My father's cousin, Rosario...for some reason when ever I see that old hag I just get sick; my father's the same way as well, to both Aunt Rosario and Great-Aunt Bianchi. It's like some sort of inherited trait or something..."

_What kind of inherited trait is that!?_ Hide gawked.

"That's sort of messed up," Suzuki commented.

"For some reason, that hag always thinks that both mine and my father's health are poor, and that only makes her visit us more!" she continued.

"Wait, isn't Reborn Rosario-san's daughter?" Hide remembered, "So...doesn't that mean he's your...?"

"My Great-Uncle? Yeah I guess it sort of does," she nodded as if it was no big deal.

_Why isn't anything making any sense today!?_ the boy wondered.

**~8~**

Hanabi quickly left when she had heard from Hide that Rosario was staying the _whole day_. Hide still had to undergo Rosario's examination until it was evening, and then she had announced her results.

"You take good care of your subordinates, Twelfth," she said, she looked over to Suzuki and nodded towards him, "And you pick really good friends. Good judgment and knowing the value of people is important to become a Boss. You pass."

"I do?" Hide gawked, he had expected himself to fail since Rosario kept on making such negative comments the whole day.

The sound of a phone ringing was heard and Rosario took out of her pocket a small, black bead which she put inside her ear. She was silent for a few moments before she took the bead out and put it back in her pocket. She had now procured a messenger bag which she put her clipboard and pen in hurriedly.

"Where are you going now?" Suzuki asked.

"I just got a message from the Main Branch," she said busily, "Something seems to have come up, so I'm going back to Italy. Good bye father, and I'll see you again soon Sawada Hideyoshi."

She left through the front door and shortly after, Hanabi came back to the house after she had left and was wondering if Rosario had left or not. Suzuki had brought a new video game that he said Hide would probably like. And so they played video games all night and ordered pizza, Adam came back from his 'errand' and joined them after changing his, for some reason, stinky clothes. Hide's mom didn't come back until it was late at night and by then they had all fallen asleep.

Hide's mother smiled and put blankets over them to keep them warm, and then she would call Suzuki and Hanabi's parents to tell them they would be spending the night at their house, but for some reason Hanabi's parents would not pick up their phone. And she would go to her own bed, and Hide would sleep in the living room with his friends, waiting for another summer's day...

**~8~**

NEW ARC: WHAT HIDES IN THE SHADOWS

**~8~**

It was cold. Almost piercing cold. There was no wind, only the dampness and the only warmth that could be relied on was the warmth your own body brought. But the cold, wet stone walls only pulled any heat away and the only source light was from the small cracks inbetween the cobbled walls. If you closed your eyes and quieted all the natural sounds from your mind, you could possibly hear a scratching noise along with the panting and mumblings of a person.

If you went towards the noises, you might possibly have found a young girl with short, blonde hair that had been dyed a rusty color with old, crusty blood, _her _blood. If you went closer to the girl, you would have found that she was pulling and scratching at the rocks desperately and while making slightly more coherent mumblings. And if you went even closer, but you really shouldn't since the girl's mind had probably been long since gone, you would have seen that the girl was crying and that her fingers were bloody from pulling and scratching at rough, cobbled rocks.

"Boss," Anna cried, "I need to tell Boss!"

**~8~**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Amano Akira, not me**

**Neither does Benjamin Button, but it was a really good movie**


	12. Ch 12: Turn of Events

The summer morning was strangely cold today, Hide and Adam were both out on their daily jog and Hide was, as usual, the slowest and got tired the quickest. To be fair, Hide _was_ running with a rope around his waist that was tied to a tire where Reborn sat in while shooting at Hide's feet.

"Why does it always end in shooting!?" Hide gasped for air while running.

"Look! It's Grandhart-kun!" he heard, some girls from his school were standing at the top of the hill near the river bank and were pointing at Hide and Adam.

"Isn't that the underwear guy too?" the other girl asked.

"Who cares!" said the girl who had first spoken, she and the other girl waved at them cheerfully, "Work hard you guys!"

"Good luck with the Boxing Club, Grandhart-kun!"

"Thanks!" Adam waved, completely unfazed by the long run, "Even though I'm not even in the Boxing Club!"

"Kyaa~! He waved back!" the girls squealed and ran off in a different direction.

"Hide, maybe you should be more popular?" Reborn suggested.

"It's harder than it looks!" he yelled, but this only encouraged more shooting.

When his tutor ran out of bullets, he had ordered the two to start doing push-ups and then sit-ups. Adam did fifty push-ups and seventy five sit-ups before actually getting tired. Hide couldn't even do one of each.

"You Weak-Hide," said Reborn, "How do you expect to fight if you can't even do one push up? The Eleventh could do at least three before passing out."

_That doesn't make him much better than me than!_ Hide screamed in his head.

"Hahah! Reborn, the Eleventh is a great man," Adam laughed, "He's strong, handsome, and smart; I heard that it was immediately decided that he would become Boss, and even then no one opposed this decision made by the Tenth!"

_Wait, the Eleventh's my uncle right?_ Hide thought,_ Wasn't he the one that said I was going to be Boss?_

"That's wrong Hide," said Reborn, "It was the Tenth, not the Eleventh, who decided."

"How'd you know what I was thinking?"

"I can read your mind, remember?"

"That makes no sense!" Hide pointed out, he regained his composure and then asked, "And why would Grandfather pick me? Shouldn't the Eleventh have picked someone, preferably someone that wasn't me?"

"You're forgetting Hide," the infant reminded, "The Eleventh _did_ have sons."

"Yeah, I heard about how all three died and stuff," he said quickly, he didn't really want to remember exactly _how_ the other heirs died, "But why didn't _he_ choose me?

"You mean you didn't know Boss?" Adam asked slightly surprised, "That the Eleventh had _four sons_?"

Hide blinked and asked, "What?"

"Yeah, his fourth son died of an illness," he continued, "Then it was really weird, cause one by one all his sons started being picked off, and within a month they were all dead. I heard that the Eleventh was so distraught about it that he couldn't even function at all, so the Tenth had to take his spot and find another successor quickly."

Hide's eyes widened and he said shakily, "S-So I was just a last minute casualty in all of this?"

"Ah, no, that's not what I meant Bo-" Adam began.

"Stop it!" he yelled, he got off the ground and stood up, "Stop calling me 'Boss' alright? I thought it was weird! Everything is all that old bastard's fault, no matter how you look at it! He completely ruined my life!"

"Hide, calm down…" Reborn began cautiously.

"NO! I don't want to be calm!" Hide yelled, "What I want is my _life_ back! My normal life with my normal friends and my normal home!"

"But you're _not_ normal Boss," Adam began.

"No! Stop!" Hide yelled and covered his ears, his eyes widened and he said shakily, "I-I have an assignment from science class that I need to finish! And I'm gonna meet up with Morita-kun this afternoon, I better get changed and take a shower so I don't smell! Ha-ha-ha!"

The laughter was forced, a hint of fear was in Hide's trembling voice. Hide's eyes were wide and he kept shifting his gaze as if he was trying to find an escape route somewhere.

"Boss…?" said Adam worriedly.

"Well I've got to go, see you guys later!" Hide waved and quickly ran off.

"What's wrong with him?" asked the foreigner.

"He's avoiding the issue," said Reborn, "It's the same move that Tsuna tried to pull off when things finally started to get serious with him and his Family."

"Who?"

"That's not important," he shook his head and took out Leon from his jacket, the lizard was now in the shape of a hammer but quickly changed into a totem pole and in Reborn's other hand was a something long, thin, and green.

"What's up with Leon?" Adam asked.

"His tail fell off," the home tutor said grimly, "The time has come sooner than I expected…"

**~8~**

Hanabi walked down the streets of Namimori carrying a grocery bag over her shoulder and strolling down the concrete with a dull look on her face. She was bored as ever and as nothing was happening and nothing was probably going to continue happening through out the day she was now just walking around aimlessly. Hanabi stopped when she heard someone running down the street and brightened up when she realized it was Hide.

"Hey, Twelfth I got a good deal on some watermelon today at the super market-" she began cheerfully but Hide ran past her as if she didn't exist.

"And then I have to get started on the math homework or the teacher will scold me in front of the class again…" he was mumbling.

"Twelfth?" Hanabi questioned and started to head off to the direction he was going.

She went five paces before feeling the killing intent on her back; she kept on walking until she was reached the playground in Namimori Park. It was completely empty, being that the elementary school was out on a field trip for the whole week. Hanabi stopped as soon as she reached the swing set and turned around cautiously with a few cards in her hand.

And then she said in a quiet, low tone, "Who's there?"

**~8~**

The boxers of Namimori Middle were in top condition today, or at least in Morita's opinion, even though competitions wouldn't start until the winter it was still important to train for it. The boxers ran through the streets of Namimori City in an almost bunched up group. People would move out of the way for the athletes, mainly because they were afraid of being trampled by them on their morning jog.

"C-Captain, can we please stop…" a boxer said tiredly, "We've been running for two straight hours..."

"Well fine, let's head back to the school," Morita said and then quickly added, "But we're running back!"

The teammates all groaned in half-approval and half-weariness. They started running back to Namimori in their tightly compacted group with Morita leading the group. As they left, something came out of one of the stores and watched them leave before quietly following.

**~8~**

Suzuki walked out of Takesushi and sat down on the hovercycle's platform, he leaned over to open the cooler that was tied onto the hovercycle, took out a soda, and waited. He took a sip and decided to lament on how hot it was today.

"It'll probably get hotter tomorrow no thanks to these sun spots," he said thoughtfully, "Maybe we should start selling shaved ice?"

Suzuki looked down each side of the street, he saw no one, he gulped the last of the soda and crushed it in his hand before going back in the restaurant.

"See anyone?" the owner of Takesushi asked.

"Nah," Suzuki shrugged and sat down at the bar, "Just this summer air..."

Yamamoto scratched his head from behind the sushi bar before sighing. Kids these days weren't even that good at bringing in business, Yamamoto could remember when this restaurant had been bustling. There were parties being hosted here all the time in the evenings and it was extraordinarily crowded at lunch, him and all his friends would either hang out here most of the time just to eat. Of course there had been the odd time that Suzuki would bring in a crowd of girls that followed him from school, but they were all on 'diets' even though each and every girl in that crowd were sticks. Once Suzuki had even brought in the baseball team after they won a game, Yamamoto knew the coach from highschool so it was pretty fun.

"I'm gonna go back outside now," the boy said before heading out.

Yamamoto sighed as he watched the boy go, no one was going to come. At least not for a while...

**~8~**

Hide slammed the door behind him and ran up to his room ignoring the singing from his mother in the kitchen, he shut his bedroom door and locked the door before collapsing onto his bed. He fixed his eyes to the white ceiling and stared at it silently while trying to empty his mind. The thoughts of becoming a Mafia Boss were gone, he had told himself, he had no homework or school tomorrow so that was good..._and_ he was going hang out with Morita in a few hours, heck, maybe he could Suzuki to come with also.

"I should take a shower," he stated but stayed in his bed.

An hour passed before he finally got up and walked towards the door, his hand hesitated at the wall-pad but Hide rested his hand on it anyways. The door opened and no one was there, Hide looked around, turned back to get a change of clothes, and snuck off to the bathroom. After he was done with his shower, he tip-toed his way downstairs and found no one in the living room nor in the kitchen. He searched all over the house and found that no one was in the house which was strange since Hide did not remember if his mother had said she was going out to do errands today.

Hide walked around the house cautiously incase this was some sort of trap set up by Reborn, he shrugged when he guessed that no one was actually around so he sat down on the couch and reached for the remote. He turned on the TV and the news came on, the woman on the news was warning and cautioning every body about the sun spots that had been recently occurring The phone started to ring at that moment, Hide looked over to the white sphere that was ringing and pressed something on to make a phone come out. He picked it up and pressed a button on the sphere to stop the ringing.

"Hello?" he asked.

"_Hide-kun?_" it was Hide's mother, her voice sounded strangely worried, "_Oh my, Hide-kun, I'm at the hospital..._"

"You're where!?" Hide stood up immediately, his eyes widened with fear.

"_Hide-kun, it turns out that Hanabi-chan, that girl that comes over a lot, well her parents are out of town and..._"

"What? What's wrong with Gokudera-san mom?" Hide asked with caution.

"_Well...they-they found her in the park, she was badly injured but she's okay now...they say she'll be alright so you don't have to worry Hide-kun. It looks like she was attacked or something-what? What is-Is that the-Oh my..._" the mother's voice was drowned out by the incoming sounds of sirens and yelling.

"M-Mom? Are you still there?" Hide dared to ask.

"_Wha-Oh, yes-yes...Hide-kun, do you know anyone on the Boxing Team?_" Hide dropped the telephone causing the speaker-phone to activate, a hole opened up within the sphere and the mother's worried face was now projected on some invisible screen in the air of the living room, the background behind the mother was a large, white room with paramedics and doctors and policemen running around the place with floating capsules that held the incoming emergency patients. Hide could have sworn that he saw that familiar brown-haired team captain in one of the capsules.

Hide ran out of the living room, the mother was left on the screen looking around the room worriedly.

"_Hide-kun? Hideyoshi! It's dangerous, do _not_ go outside! I just asked a police man and he said-_" the electricity was then cut through out the neighborhood, had Hide stayed in the house longer he would have been trapped within it and probably would have died.

**~8~**

"Tch, missed him by _this_ much," a whip cracked like lightening on the rooftop of a nearby house.

"You could have been slightly quicker," small red beads were thrown up in the air before being caught in the same hand that threw them up, "Could have been a good game of 'Hide and Seek'."

"That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of."

"Is it now? Maybe we should just settle this once and for all then...?"

"Now, now..." metallic nails with a purple glint to them clutched two throats, "_We_ have been granted voices, the least we can do for that person is kill him."

Three pairs of cold, dead eyes stared at the young boy that ran down the streets with a worried expression. The metallic nails let go of the throats and the arms connected to the nails folded, "Sawada Tsunayoshi..."

**~8~**

Hide stumbled as he ran through the empty streets with his sandals on, he stopped for a moment to catch his breath and thought that everything seemed so surreal now. The running, the push-ups, the shower, _and_ the hospital. It was as if everything was just a dream, but it was all too real to just be a dream now. It seemed that the entire Boxing Team had been beaten up from the image that Hide saw on the phone's visual screen.

"This can't be..." he muttered to himself, "I-I...I was going to see Morita-kun in like, two hours! And we were probably gonna go see a movie with Suzuki if he was free, then maybe Gokudera-san would find me and invite herself into our group, who knows maybe we could see Megumi-chan as well, heh, heh!"

"Don't be ridiculous Hide," Hide turned around and saw Reborn, he would have asked where the baby had come from but Hide then realized that Reborn could have been around all this time since he had stopped on a bridge.

"Reborn...wh-where's Adam...?" the boy asked.

"Adam can take care of himself," said Reborn coldly, "What's more important is that I have tell you something."

"But Gokudera-san, and Morita-kun, and-and the hospital! I-I ha-" Hide began, Reborn quickly jumped up and kicked the back of his head.

"Things happen all the time," the infant stated, "It won't change if you are there to witness it. What matters is what is happening now," Reborn paused in case Hide decided to say something and continued, "Now, exactly _why_ do you think Morita and Hanabi were attacked?"

"I don't know! They both have nothing in common except...for..." Hide voice trailed off, "What about Suzuki? And Adam? And mom, and gramps, and Megumi-chan, and that weird stalker-girl, are they all alright?"

"Adam went to check on Suzuki and your grandfather," said Reborn, "Your mother and Megumi are at the hospital, which is a too public place to attack someone, and Katsura is out of town with her family."

Hide sighed with relief and quickly looked around with caution before whispering, "Reborn, what am I going to do? I can't fight against assassins!"

Reborn thought about this and said, "It would have been better if we had gotten to train Morita and Suzuki for combat, and it also would have been nice if Anna was here as well."

_This is horrible, how in the world did this turn into the worst possible situation?_ Hide thought miserably.

**~8~**

Adam ran up to Takesushi and saw Suzuki waiting outside the restaurant peacefully, he was completely uninjured and didn't seem to hear what had happened to the Boxing Team yet.

"Suzuki!" Adam called out, the boy looked up and brightened when he saw the other.

"Hey, Adam right? Are you hungry?" Suzuki asked eagerly.

Adam thought about how hungry he actually was before shaking his head and said, "Never mind that, didn't you hear what happened to Smoking Bomb?"

"You mean Hanabi?" Suzuki asked, he realized that everyone playing the 'Mafia game' had a nickname except for him, he was going to have to make one up now, "Why? What happened?"

"She was sent to the hospital," Suzuki dropped his soda and gave Adam a wide-eyed look, "It looks like someone from a, uh, rival team got to her and Sakuraba Morita."

The boy relaxed when he heard the familiar words, "A rival team, huh? So we're playing against other teams now?"

"Yup, that's right," Adam nodded and said, "We need to get to the hospital though in order to meet up with everyone. Why don't I go inside and ask Hide's gramps if he wants to join in also, the more the merrier right?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Suzuki agreed cheerfully, "We won't be having any customers any time soon, so why not?"

"I wouldn't exactly say that so soon," said a voice, two black army boots stopped in front of the boys.

**~8~**

**Didn't I tell you it was exciting? Eh? EH? Well, just here to say that I won't be updating for about a week, not because of my computer but just because I have decided to devote the rest of the week to study, study, STUDY! **

**On a side-note: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it belongs to Amano Akira**


	13. Ch 13: Poseidon's Trident

Adam and Suzuki both gawked at the horrible outfit in front of them. Picture it, just picture it: Vividly, bright blue pants, over-sized, black army boots, a vest, that started out bright green on the top and somehow moved over to orange, and the vest was over a dark, blue t-shirt that said 'Peace Master' in large, bold white letters. The person in the outfit obviously couldn't care less what s/he wore; he or she, it was very hard to tell the gender, had short blue hair that had been lazily put up in a ponytail, though the hair-band that kept the ponytail up looked as though it was going to fall out if the person's head moved even the slightest. The person was also holding up a video game over his or her own head to block the sun and was playing it intensely.

"Um..." Suzuki gaped, then regained his composure and asked the person in a bright and cheerful tone, "Heya there! Are you hungry?"

Dark, blue eyes darted back and forth from the video game to Adam and Suzuki, "Hold on, hold on," he or she said slightly impatiently while muttering, "Save point, save point..."

Something beeped on the video game and the person hit a button, causing the game to turn off. He or she then looked up while scratching his or her head lazily.

"Uh..." the person began slowly, his or her lips moved as if trying to recite something.

Adam and Suzuki both exchanged confused looks before Adam decided to step up to the plate and ask this strange person a question that had been on both of their minds, "Excuse me, but who exactly _are_ you?"

The person regarded them with a surprised look, acting as if they had both just appeared out of no where, and slowly said, "Well...I don't really have a, uh..." the person's voice drifted off and quickly trailed back to reality, "'Name'. That's it, 'name'."

Once again, Adam and Suzuki exchanged looks of utter confusion. The stranger then pointed with its finger, but the finger was limp and the arm was only up half-way, right towards Suzuki.

"But you should know that best, Yamamoto Takeshi," he or she said accusingly.

**~8~**

When Hanabi woke up she was surprised. First off, she had no clue where she was, and second, a horrible pain welcomed her when she sat up. Pain streaked up one of her legs and straight into her gut, making her want to throw up at first, she grabbed her aching head with bandaged hands and breathed deeply with clenched teeth. Sudden reminiscences of what had landed her in the hospital flooded into her head along with the smell of medicine.

_That man_, she recalled, _or that woman, whatever! That little weirdo with the blue hair and crazy outfit! What the hell was up with that person!? That person...that person..._Hanabi looked around and found a window to look out of, clouds were beginning to gather as if threatening to rain, _that thing shouldn't even be called a person..._

**~8~**

"Now go away," the blue-haired stranger stated, a trident came out from supposedly nowhere and the stranger began to charge at him with it.

"What!?" Suzuki gulped and moved to the side where the person missed, but s/he swung the trident sideways where it hit Suzuki in the gut.

The boy keeled over while grabbing at his stomach, his eyes widened as the person stood in front of him with the trident's pointed ends being pointed at his head. Suzuki bent down as if to bow down to the stranger and kicked his legs up, thus kicking him or her in the face. The person stumbled back as Suzuki stood up and ran to grab his baseball bat.

The person regained his or her composure by the time Suzuki grabbed his bat and charged at Suzuki again. The black-haired boy turned around right before the trident could pierce him and blocked it with his bat, it was a very hard thing to do since a trident was like a spear and you couldn't just block the blade of the thing. The trident's three prongs were practically humming for Suzuki's blood as the sharp ends were only an inch away from his head. The baseball creaked under the strength that the blue-haired stranger was giving to the trident, until finally it snapped.

Luckily, Suzuki had ducked right before the blades could get to his face and he kicked the person in the stomach again before getting out free.

"Good, looks like Adam isn't here," Suzuki said with relief, "I wouldn't want anyone else to get hurt."

The blue-haired stood back up and looked at Suzuki with a steely-blue gaze, "You will always be the same won't you?" he or she said, "Those quick reflexes, that strength, and you never want to actually harm the enemy."

The baseball player gave a look of utter bafflement to the blue-haired stranger.

"Don't give me that look," he or she said, "You act like you don't even _remember_ me. I, the one that stuck by your side no matter what happened, I, the one that was always watching your back in tough situations, I, the one that shared your pain and happiness..._I am your Box_."

Suzuki was once again completely confused and had no clue what this person was talking about, he was pretty sure it was supposed to be dramatic and he wondered if this was supposed to be part of the role playing game Hide had started. Now that he thought about it, that person called him 'Yamamoto Takeshi', was that his nickname? Like Hanabi had 'Smokin' Bomb' and Hide had 'Twelfth'. Well, Suzuki concluded, if his character was supposed to be this 'Yamamoto Takeshi' then he would just have to roll with it.

"Hmph," he smirked as he tried to fit into the role, "It seems like you were able to find me again."

"Of course I would find you again," the person stated, "The first place _anyone_would look is at your home."

Suzuki looked back at the Takesushi restaurant logo and nodded. _So apparently_, he thought, _I live here? Cool! That makes this a meeting spot right?_

He wanted to ask if the restaurant was now a meeting spot or like a spot you had to claim, sorta like Catch-the-Flag. But Suzuki didn't want to break his character so he didn't say anything, hopefully the other person would realize that he didn't know the rules that well to the Mafia game and tell him what they were.

"Yeah, I guess this makes it a meeting place than doesn't it," he said knowingly and looked back to the restaurant.

"Only you could be this light-hearted at a time like this," he or she said and readied the trident in his or her hands.

**~8~**

"Mr. Yamamoto!" Adam came rushing in and saw the old Japanese male behind the bar reading the newspaper.

The old man looked up and grinned when he saw a potential customer.

"Hello there, are you a friend of my employee?" Yamamoto asked cheerfully.

Adam ran over to the bar and said in a hurried hushed tone, "Look here old man; I _know_ for a fact that you are Yamamoto Takeshi, the exact same Yamamoto Takeshi that was the Rain Guardian for the Tenth Vongola! So don't even play the nice-old-man act with me!"

Yamamoto was quiet for a few seconds before turning back to his newspaper and saying, "Well, what do you want, young man?"

"You were a master swordsman, right?" Adam asked.

"...Yes, if you want my sword you better think again though," the old man said sternly.

"I'm not a swordsman, and I'm not the one that needs a sword at the moment," the foreigner said and looked at the door where he came from, "But I know someone who does..."

**~8~**

Suzuki grabbed a trash lid from the side of the street and held it out, he was planning to use it as a shield like people did in the movies but the trident pierced through the tin lid as if it wasn't even there. The baseball player was running out of ways to escape this person, it was like the blue-haired person was completely in sync with him. Every time Suzuki avoided the trident-wielder, he or she would quickly find another way to strike the boy.

It didn't even seem like the person was playing around now either, especially since now Suzuki was on the ground with his neck in between two prongs on the trident. Suzuki was especially thankful for the fact that he had a thin neck and the trident's prongs were spaced out widely.

"I can't get it out," the blue-haired stranger commented and he or she tried to pull the trident out of the cement ground, it must have been an inch or two into the sidewalk. Suzuki found a new thing to be thankful for.

"Poseidon!" everything seemed to freeze, the person who had been trying to kill Suzuki was now frozen almost like a statue. Suzuki turned his head and saw Yamamoto standing at the entrance of Takesushi with a blue baseball bat in his hand.

The blue-haired moved its head and looked at Yamamoto with wide eyes, not exactly fearful or surprised. It stared silently at Yamamoto, the blue-haired's mouth moved silently as if it was trying to figure something out.

"You...are...Yamamoto Takeshi?" it said in a questioning tone.

"Poseidon, you have really changed," Yamamoto replied, "You are more talkative than I remember, that's for sure."

"Things change," it stated and pulled the trident out with ease that hadn't occurred earlier, "You are...different as well."

"People change," the elderly man said and added, "How many years do you think it has been?"

Poseidon was silent; it gave off an almost curious silence like it was waiting for Yamamoto to say the answer. Suzuki was still lying on the ground, trying to fight the sleepiness that had suddenly caught him. His heavy eyelids were coming down, but he couldn't help but want to watch and see what would happen next. Sadly Suzuki fell asleep, leaving Hide to watch what would happen next.

"Forty," the old man sighed, a hint of disappointment was in his voice, "It's been forty years; as I thought, Boxes have no sense of time."

Poseidon was still quiet, it gave Yamamoto a glassy-eyed look that suggested it was waiting for another answer which would have been good also. Suzuki then realized that Poseidon had the same blank stare even when s/he was fighting Suzuki. That same blank stare, as if that person had been trained, no, _born_ with that look. As if it was a statue, as if it had never even experienced happiness or sorrow; _it_ wasn't a person, Suzuki realized, _it_ was a _thing._

**~8~**

"Reborn!" Hide yelled.

"What are you so noisy about, stupid-Hide?" Reborn asked.

"Well first off, my friends' lives are in danger!" he yelled, "There are assassins here to get me, my family, and my friends! How can I not be noisy!? And wasn't Adam and Anna supposed to _stop_ the assassinations!?"

Reborn was silent for a few minutes and said, "No, something has gone wrong. It may not seem like it to you Hide, but those two are first-class hitmen in the Mafia World. Their status allows them to be able to control hits and unmark a target if they wished to. No, this is the work of something that isn't part of the Mafia."

"Something that's not part of the Mafia but is powerful enough to take down Gokudera-san and the entire Boxing Team?" Hide fretted while pulling at his hair.

The small hitman kicked Hide in the shin and said, "Quit acting stupid, now...where do you think we should go at this moment Hide?"

The boy was surprised at this question and stopped pulling at his roots to think about the question. "Um..." he began slightly worriedly, "Th-The Hospital, definitely...I need to see if Gokudera-san and Morita-kun are okay."

With that, they started their way towards the Hospital. Hide was slightly unsure if this was the right decision instead of going to Takesushi, but Adam was there so...everything was going to be alright, right? Right?

**~8~**

**Aaand that's the end of it, hope you guys liked it. I realize that this chapter is really short, but after doing days of mind-numbing homework this was the best I could do. It's also my first time writing a fight-scene and the first time I wrote something that didn't entirely revolve around Hide.**

**I would like to make note that Poseidon has no real gender so I'm just gonna call him or her an 'it' from now on, you'll also be seeing a lot of that as well from here on out.**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it belongs to Amano Akira**

**EDIT: Hey guys! Check out the KHR forums for the forum I created, it's called Just another Forum. You can do almost anything there! Talk about what ever you want: pairings, new chapters of KHR, old chapters of KHR, theories on next chapters, post up interesting KHR links, ask questions you're confused about, talk about KHR stories on Fanfiction (like this one per say), and get to know more of the people that are on this site! Trust me its super fun, or will be once things start moving!**

**ersonally**


	14. Ch 14: Loki's Beads

Hide ran into the hospital and saw his mother in the lobby, but he ran up to her and asked where Hanabi and Morita were. The mother didn't know where Morita was, but she _did _know where Hanabi was. And it wasn't too hard to guess where due to the amount of nurses and screaming that was occurring in front of the her room.

"Let me go!" Hanabi screamed as she tried to break out of the hospital, "Let me out, let me out, let me out!!"

"Please stay Miss Gokudera!" a nurse pleaded as she and many more were trying to get the girl back into her room if not her bed.

"No!" Hanabi screamed and greatly wished that she had her cards so she could just blow them up and run off.

"Gokudera-san!" Hanabi immediately busted through the crowd of nurses as if they were now nothing and ran over to Hide like a dog to its master.

"Twelfth! I didn't think you would actually come and see _me_!" she said with delight, "_You're_ not hurt, are you?"

"No, I'm not, Gokudera-san," Hide sighed with relief, Hanabi seemed alright to him so now he had to worry about Morita, but first, "What happened though Gokudera-san? Did someone attack you?"

The girl frowned and crossed her arms while scowling at the sour memory of being defeated. "It was that stupid..._thing_!"

"A thing?" Hide questioned.

"It looks like a person, but it isn't!" Hanabi continued, "It wouldn't go down no matter how many cards I threw at it! Like-like some kind of robot or what ever! It also wore really weird clothes too! That was the thing that pissed me off the most!"

Hide ignored the rest of what Hanabi was saying because after that it all revolved around how much unmatching clothes pissed her off. _A thing, huh?_ Hide thought, his eyes wandered over to Hanabi's injuries. Her arm was in a cast, a bandage was wrapped around her head and patches on her cheek and neck.

Gokudera caught the sullen look on Hide's face and quickly said, "Don't worry Twelfth! I'm just a little off my game today! When I see that bastard again, I'll beat the crap outta him!"

This statement did not help him feel better in the least. _Great, she's even MORE determined now..._the boy sighed.

"Yo! Hide!" a voice yelled, a wheelchair rolled down the hallways at top speed. It zoomed past Hide and Hanabi leaving a trail of dust, the wheelchair wheeled itself back to them at a slower pace and the owner gave them both a grin.

"Morita-kun!" Hide gaped, "You're better already!?"

"Crap! What was that for you freakin' giant!" Hanabi yelled, "You nearly ran the Twelfth over!"

"Sorry, sorry," Morita apologized, the nurses had long since resolved to just let their group be and not bother them, "I got a little excited when I saw Hide though, sorry that I couldn't go to hangout with you today like we planned."

The other boy gaped at this, Morita was in a wheelchair and he was _worried_ that Hide would be mad at him because he couldn't come and hangout!? What sort of mindset is that?

"Don't worry about that!" Hide yelled, "Your in a wheelchair and you look badly injured, shouldn't you be more worried about that!?"

Morita blinked and smiled, he started fiddling with the wheelchair while saying, "I'm a boxer, Hide, if I was worried about getting hurt and being hurt all the time I wouldn't be able to go outside."

"Geez!" the teen pulled at his hair in frustration, "How'd you and the whole Boxing Team get hurt anyways?"

The boxer brightened at this and began to explain enthusiastically, "Ah, well we were done doing our morning warm-ups when all of the sudden this weird guy came up to us and asked for the strongest guy among us, I said we were all really strong but _I_ was the captain. And then he punched me and everyone started getting riled up by it and that's how we got in a fight, I was actually just looking for that guy since he _was_ fighting the whole Boxing Team. But I couldn't find that guy anywhere."

"Was he dressed up really weirdly?" Hanabi asked.

"Yeah, he was!" Morita nodded.

"Tch! That pisses me off!" she said sourly and added, "The same guy got me too! He just strolled up to me and started attacking me out of no where!"

_The same person?_ Hide thought.

Reborn walked over to them with a baseball bat that turned into a hamburger, Hide noticed this and asked, "What's with Leon?"

"Whenever he loses his tail he loses his ability to shape-shift," Reborn explained.

_What kind of reasoning is that!?_ Hide gawked.

"Geez, I just realized that Megumi is going to be super worried about me now," Morita sighed.

"Megumi-san?" Hide cheered up when he heard the girl mentioned.

"Yeah," he continued, "Me and Megumi have been friends since were little, she's like a sister and she always worries too much over little things."

"That makes me feel _so _much better," Hide muttered as another item was thrown onto his guilt trip.

Leon changed from a hammer now to a glowing ball.

"That's good," Reborn grinned, "Now he's in his cocoon-state."

"What's that?" Hide dared to ask.

"When Leon loses his tail, that is usually a sign that my current student will undergo an arduous task," the infant explained, "As the time approaches, he will change into this cocoon and become something new that will help my student further in his training."

_Why does this all seem to be out of some myth now?_ the boy wondered.

Hanabi overheard all this and quickly said, "Twelfth! Twelfth! You're going to go train, right? Can I help?"

"Not right now Hanabi," said Reborn, "Due to the current circumstances; it looks like the task Hide must undergo is to find the person who hurt you and Sakuraba first."

"So you're going to get the guy who hurt me first, Twelfth? I'm not worthy for your vengeance!" the girl began bowing and stopped when a shock wave of pain ran up her arm, "Gaah, my arm!"

"Gokudera-san!"

"Scary-girl!"

**~8~**

"Geh," Poseidon stumbled back while holding onto its shoulder.

"You forced me into this, Poseidon," Yamamoto stated while holding a sword above it, "I will let you go only if you tell me who 'opened' you."

Poseidon's cold blue eyes swiveled towards the elderly man and said, "You abandoned that person the same way you abandoned me..."

The cold blue eyes closed and Poseidon's body relaxed and the color seemed to fade from it. Yamamoto put the sword back in its sheath and said, "I didn't abandon you, I simply put you away for another time."

Adam sidled himself out of the restaurant and surveyed the damage around the place, he surprised to see that the nearby building took no damage at all and that only the sidewalk was a little scratched. It was as if the whole battle that just happened didn't even take place.

"A-Amazing," he said in awe, "As expected of one of the most legendary hitmen in the Mafia World, you left no trace of taking down your target yet you still got something almost impossible done..."

Yamamoto turned around and walked towards the fallen Suzuki. He picked the boy up silently and walked into the restaurant, Adam followed at his heels but stopped when the old man turned back to him and said:

"Pick up Poseidon, it's not safe just leaving a 'body' out in the middle of the street," he said.

Adam nodded and picked the blue-hair's body up, he ran into the restaurant.

**~8~**

"Wait, your guy had _blue_ hair?" Morita questioned, Hanabi nodded as she stood up. Hide was busy talking to the nurses and doctors to pay much attention to what Morita was saying.

"My guy had _red_ hair," the brown-haired boy continued, "That's strange, probably doesn't matter though."

**~8~**

Red beads were thrown up in to the air and caught gingerly by a white-gloved hand. Bright-red hair blew with the wind as matching red eyes viewed the Takesushi Restaurant. It approached the restaurant and slid open the door. Adam and Yamamoto were both in the back at the time before it came in. It looked around until it saw its companion and picked Poseidon up, before leaving it stopped in front of the door and dropped a red bead playfully. The bead rolled around until it stopped at a crack on the wooden flooring and by then the red-haired/red-eyed thing left.

**~8~**

Hide walked back to Hanabi and Morita, who were now in the lobby, and said, "I managed to convince the nurses and doctors to let you guys out, but Morita-kun are you really alright with out the wheelchair?"

"Don't worry about it, Hide!" the boy grinned while running a hand through his cropped, light-brown hair, "I heal pretty quickly, what about you Scary-girl? You look a bit pale."

"My name is not 'scary-girl', giant!" Hanabi growled.

"Well my name's not 'giant' either, so that makes it fair!"

_I'm with complete and total idiots..._Hanabi thought grimly.

"Gokudera-san, are you sure that you're going to be okay?" Hide asked concernedly, "You are looking pale."

"You don't have to worry about me Twelfth!" she said cheerfully, "I have a strong constitution!"

_Not in front of Rosario-san you don't!_ the boy pointed out in his head.

"Then let's get going to Takesushi, Suzuki and Adam-san are there," Hide said out loud, "It'll be best if we stick together."

**~8~**

They left the hospital and started walking around the town for a little while; Takesushi was on the other side of Namimori so it would take a while to get there. It took half an hour to get there, which was quicker than Hide expected to be, but the streets were now empty because the news had announced the attacks that had been going on. When they were still in the hospital, many other Namimori students were in the hospital as well, including some of the Baseball Team, the Disciplinary Committee, and some were just random students.

"This is my entire fault, I just know it..." Hide said out loud, he had meant for it to be a thought.

"No it's not, Hide!" said Morita as he swung an arm around the boy's shoulder, "I'm sure that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this, it's probably some rival school that has decided to pick on Namimori."

"No, it's definitely Hide," said Reborn bluntly.

"You _so_ good at cheering people up, Reborn," the blond muttered.

When they walked into the restaurant, Hide immediately slipped on something and fell to the ground.

"Twelfth!"

"Hide!"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Hide muttered and he sat up while rubbing his head, he picked up the item he had slipped on which was a tiny red marble, "What is this?"

"Boss?" Adam came out from the kitchen in the back of the restaurant and helped Hide up, "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I slipped on this marble," he said while holding the marble in the palm of his hand.

Hide's grandfather followed Adam from the kitchen and saw the boy holding up the bead. Yamamoto hurried over to the marble and snatched it from Hide's hand.

"Gramps?" the boy questioned but was hushed by Reborn and Yamamoto.

"I see," the old man said after awhile.

"What is it Yamamoto?" Reborn asked in a dead serious tone.

"Wait, you know gramps!?" Hide asked but was ignored.

"This is one of Loki's beads," Yamamoto answered, "It probably took Poseidon..."

"Hold on, what are you talking about?" the boy asked.

Yamamoto looked at his grandson and gave him a pat on the back, "Looks like your going through your own little trial now, eh buddy?"

_Gramps is making no sense as usual!_ Hide thought as his grandfather kept on patting him on the back.

"Well you see..." Adam began and started to explain what had happened to him and Suzuki, and who Poseidon was but Adam had no clue who 'Loki' was.

"Poseidon was definitely the guy who attacked me," said Hanabi.

"Then it was probably Loki that attacked my team," said Morita while he was looking at the red bead, "That guy had like a necklace of these and was tossing them up and down."

Yamamoto nodded and noticed Hanabi also staring at the bead, he said cheerfully, "You must be Gokudera's kid right? Hanabi-chan!"

"What are you talking about, geezer?" the girl asked sourly, "My name's Gokudera, but I doubt that my dad knew you."

"Nah, of course he knew me!" Yamamoto insisted, "I worked with your grandfather for a long time, we worked together a lot before we retired."

"Che, my grandfather was a top-class assassin," she said proudly, "He wouldn't hang around some lowly fish-merchant."

"Hahah, you even talk like him!"

It took Hide a couple minutes to put two and two together, "Wait! Gramps, you were an assassin!?"

"A hitman to be specific," the elderly man said bluntly.

"And I thought _you_ were my normal side of the family!" Hide screamed in terror, "That means I wasn't normal to begin with!"

"Yamamoto had a lot of talent when he was younger, he was well-suited to be a hitman since birth," said Reborn, this didn't help Hide in the least.

_Great, my gramps is an assassin and my grandfather is a Mafia Boss, _the boy thought in horror, _I'm practically suited to be in the mafia!_

"We can handle all this later though," said Reborn, "Right now, we need to focus on where to find this Loki and Poseidon so we can get on with finding out why they are here."

"Hey kiddo, you _do_ remember what they are, don't you?" Hide's grandfather asked, "Those aren't things that can be messed around with easily."

"Which is why we need everyone we can get, where's Suzuki?"

"In the back, he's asleep."

"Is he alright?" Hide asked, he would have asked what they were just talking about but this was more important at the moment, "Is Suzuki alright?"

Yamamoto gave him a surprised look before smiling and nodding, "Yeah, he's alright. Take him with you for the rest of the day and give him this."

Hide caught a baseball bat that Yamamoto tossed over to him, "It should help," he said.

"What should help?" a voice asked, Suzuki stood by the kitchen doorway.

"Suzuki!" Hide brightened and ran over to the boy.

"I fell asleep in the middle of a fight, how lame of me," he said while running a hand through his matted down, black hair, "I won't do it again though, promise ya Hide!"

"As long as you're alright," Hide sighed with relief.

Yamamoto stood up and said, "Back to the point, that red bead that Hide slipped on belongs to Loki, the one who took Poseidon. Loki's not stupid enough to just leave a trace behind, but it's certainly mischievous. It probably dropped it there for a reason, I'm sure that if you all look you will find red beads scattered around Namimori. But I think I might know where exactly both of them are heading..."

**~8~**

A metallic door opened and Loki stepped through it with Poseidon hanging off of its back. It flicked a red bead up in the air and caught it again as it walked down the halls that had rust and mold growing around the walls. Loki reached a door that it had to force open, cold air rushed out of the room as it stepped through the doorway and closed the room off again. It walked through the freezing room, stirring up cold air as it went, and stopped when it reached a large computer.

Loki laid Poseidon down on the table in front of the computer and robotic arms and wires came out of the walls. One arm had a small, opened box which Poseidon was sucked into. Wires covered the icy box and took it into the walls.

_"...Lo...ki..."_ a voice whispered.

"Yes?" Loki answered with a plastered grin on its face.

_"Loki...what...hap...pened?"_ the voice whispered again.

"Who knows," Loki shrugged, "But Poseidon sure took a pretty bad hit."

_"I'm...not...jo...king...Loki..."_ the voice hissed.

"I know, I know," it said quickly, "Poseidon approached Yamamoto Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato, but it didn't defeat Yamamoto. I was able to get Sasagawa Ryohei, but not Sawada Tsunayoshi."

A wire came out of the wall and traveled its way towards Loki's ear.

"Hold on! What are you doing!?" Loki asked, slightly startled.

_Collecting data_: the computer screen read. The wire slipped its way into Loki's ear and images started to appear on the screen. There was quiet for a few minutes before the wire unplugged itself and went back into the wall.

_"You...have gotten...the wrong people..."_ the voice whispered.

"What? No! They match the location and occupation, and two of them had a 50% and more DNA match!" Loki argued, but his smile was still in place.

_"Those...aren't them...except..."_ the screen flickered and an image of Hide running down the street alone with a worried look on his face was on the screen. "_This one...looks exactly like him..."_

"Is it enough?"

_"...It is...enough to cause...a stir..."_ the voice said more quickly.

"Do you still want us to go after them?" it smiled.

_"...No, get in...your positions...and get ready..."_

"Right," Loki left with its fixed smile in place.

**~8~**

**Note from the Author: Alright! I won't be updating for another week but I thought two chapters was good right? Anyone read the newest chapter of Hitman Reborn!? Kinda slow, I thought, but can't wait until next week when Tsuna opens his Box Weapon. If you guys want to chat about this chapter or Hitman Reborn!'s chapter, then come on and join the forums! Especially mine: Just another Forum.**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Amano Akira and not me nor anyone else I know personally**


	15. Ch 15: Explanations and New Items

**Note: any word with a * after it is a note that will be at the bottom of the chapter**

**~8~**

Adam ran outside the restaurant and looked around the street until he found a small red bead on the ground.

"Found one!" he called out; Hide, Hanabi, Suzuki, Morita and Reborn ran outside to where Adam was standing, "Just where Mr. Yamamoto said it would be..."

Hide bent down and picked the bead up, he examined it closely before putting it back in his pocket.

"Are you sure your gramps won't come with us?" Adam asked.

"Yeah," Hide nodded, "I'm sure that there are reasons that Gramps decided to retire from being a hitman, and he probably doesn't want to get caught up in this stuff again..."

They all looked up towards the forested hill that was in the center of Namimori, the abandoned Namimori Shrine. Hide gulped before he and his friends started their way towards the Shrine.

**~8~**

"'Enough to cause a stir'," two purple converse shoes walked down the stairs of the abandoned Namimori Shrine, "'Get in your positions'," sun-set orange cargo-pants sat down on the stairs of the shrine and two hands were stuck in the pockets of the cargo-pants, "Get ready," an eternal frown was set on a statuesque face, not detracting from its beauty one bit, "Poseidon, Loki, Raphael, Amaterasu, and Morpheus...all those that go by a name, like little pets that get _so_ happy when called by their owners."

Dark violet eyes glared as they surveyed the trees, no animals dared to stir in them lest they be killed on the spot.

"Names are restrictions," it spoke like a sharp blade, "A wild animal becomes tamed when it is named."

"What _are_ you talking about?" a voice asked from behind the violet-eyed person, "Talking to yourself about 'names', we all don't want names nor do we need them. _We _are Boxes, naming a Box is like naming a tool and only the person who uses those tools actually feels the need to name us."

"Yet you respond and call yourself by your name," said the violet-eyed Box.

"You respond to your name as well, Nyx," said the voice, "And my last owner put quite a lot of thought into my name before she called me it."

"_Morpheus_ is such a lovely name," the Box said sourly.

"It is," Morpheus, the only Box that could come close to true human emotion, agreed despite the amount of sarcasm that was in the voice, "My owner, or _owners_, were actually pretty nice to me instead of constantly making me do more and more fighting like yours did."

"Shut up," Nyx scowled, "Just because you had _slight_ consciousness back then because your affinity is 'Construction'-"

"Yes, yes, I know," it interrupted, "You can't escape humans though, Nyx. Humans created us, Humans opened us, we even feed off Human emotion; even that person was a Human at some point."

Nyx was silent for a few seconds before saying, "What did you come here for?"

"Nothing, nothing, just a little chat," Morpheus grinned, "Ya know, before the big fight that is."

"Then leave," there was no argument at this statement, so Morpheus left it alone and walked up the stairs in silence.

**~8~**

"God Box?" Hide questioned.

"Yes, God Box," Reborn nodded, he had just been giving a crash course on Box Weapon history to the children, "They are like a mix of Animal Boxes and Weapons Boxes, their weren't an invention of Geppetto* though; a scientist that was outside the group of Verde, Innocenti, and Koenig made them almost fifty years ago. They were designed after mythological gods, hence why they are called God Boxes. Coincidentally, that scientist was actually working for the Vongola, so the Vongola was the first to get their hands on the new technology before it boomed."

"I've never heard of these Boxes though Reborn," Adam stated.

"Me neither," said Hanabi and then she quickly added, "Nor Boxes in general."

"You're grandfather had quite a few, Hanabi, if you remember a small, red and yellow cat* around in your childhood. As for the God Box, Adam, that's because they were banned by the Vongola early on by the Tenth Vongola," the infant explained, "From the beginning, the Tenth disliked using Box Weapons and when Weapons that looked like people came around he immediately banned them. Another reason was that they a great amount of power was needed to open just one, and anyone with that much power outside the Vongola was viewed as a threat. That's why there are so little God Boxes in the world, almost all of them belong to the Vongola Family and most are kept in a protected area."

"And you think that the guys who attacked us are God Boxes?" Hide asked.

"Not exactly, even Yamamoto wasn't sure since he said that Poseidon had the ability to talk," Reborn said with a hint of doubt.

"Is that something bad?"

"Yes," the small infant nodded, "God Boxes shouldn't have the ability to speak nor should they be able to make movements without the owner nearby, they are like puppets in a sense, or moving statues. However, these Boxes seem to be more human-like, I would have to see one in person to actually know if they were God Boxes or not."

"So then you've seen them in person before?"

"Quite a few times, yes," Reborn nodded and added grimly, "But if I am not around and you meet one, remember this one thing that is common in all of them: Each one can show only one emotion, except one and that one is the most dangerous Box. Understand?"

They all nodded and realized that while they were talking, they had already walked to the hill in the center of Namimori. A long, stone staircase ascended up the hill to where Namimori Shrine was, grass and moss covered the stony steps and trees were huddled around the pathway making the path up seem like a tunnel. An eerie sensation was spread throughout the air and the wind made old leaves danced across the moss-covered stones. Hide could feel his knees shake just staring into the tunnel that led to the abandoned shrine.

"I-I don't remember these stairs being so long when I was little," he said nervously.

Suzuki sensed the fear coming off Hide and swung an arm around the boy playfully, saying, "We just have to find this Poseidon-guy or that Loki-guy, right? It'll be easy since we're all expecting what will happen now!"

Hide nodded solemnly as Suzuki took his arm off the boy's shoulder and started heading up the stairs. _Suzuki is as carefree as always_, Hide sighed, _wasn't he listening to Reborn at all? Not only that, but Reborn said that he only has one other Dying Will Bullet! I have a feeling it won't be as easy as he thinks it will be..._

"Hey, Hide!" Morita called, he and the others were already walking into the ascending tunnel while Hide was standing in spot, "C'mon Hide, hurry up!"

"R-Right! Coming!" Hide nodded and started running up the stairs, he could only hope that he and his friends would come out the same way they came in.

**~8~**

A bird flapped its wings overhead as took off from a tree. Another bird cawed and the branches shook as the other had taken off, causing Hide to jump in surprise and trip on the steps.

"Twelfth, are you alright?" asked Hanabi as she helped him up.

"Y-yeah," he nodded and looked around; the trees were almost completely blocking sunlight from inside the tunnel and only specks of light moved back and forth as the tree branches swayed in the wind.

"Stupid-Hide, you got scared over a silly little bird," Reborn mocked his student, Morita and Suzuki started snickering from behind the now red-faced boy.

"Quit laughing at the Twelfth bastard!" the bomber yelled, "Even if he _is_ scared easily!"

_That's not helping Gokudera-san!_ the boy sighed as the snickering continued.

"Sssh!" they all fell silent as Adam had held up a hand for them to be quiet, he was crouched on the ground standing as still as a statue. They waited a few seconds until a passing cloud blocked the sun above, "_Get down!_"

It happened in an instant, in a simple gust of wind the trees fell crashing to the ground with rocks falling in a loud booming sound that shook the ground. Hide had luckily ducked, or had been pushed down by Suzuki, in time to avoid getting slashed along with the trees. When the dust that had been stirred up cleared, the rubble from the wreckage was pushed aside as he and Suzuki stood up coughing.

"Is everyone alright?" Hide asked to anyone that was listening in general.

"Yeah," Hanabi stood up as she pushed a broken log out of her way.

"Reborn's with me," said Morita as he stood up and lifted a log that was above him, the infant jumped out of their little hole completely unscathed.

"Look," Reborn pointed, Adam was already on top of some fallen trees and was staring expectantly at a figure that sat on top of the stair way, its hands stuffed in orange baggy pants with baggy pockets sown on it. It wore a plum-colored shirt with a brown scarf that had red stars around its neck; it had matted-down purple hair that covered its violet eyes.

The figure was scowling at Adam and staring straight at him, not even paying attention to the others around them. It stood up while still keeping the sharp glare with Adam.

"Hey, Reborn-san," Adam called to the infant without turning around, "This guy here wouldn't happen to be one of those God Boxes, would they?"

"...as it so happens, I believe it is," Reborn replied thoughtfully and called to the Box, "You wouldn't happen to be Cloud Nyx, would you?"

"I don't go by names," Nyx said coldly while still keeping its stare.

"That's definitely Nyx then," the infant nodded in approval.

"Then," Adam began and slipped a hand to his back jeans pocket, "you might be able to tell us where this 'Poseidon' and 'Loki' are."

Nyx's eyebrow twitched and it said, "I don't concentrate on weaklings like those."

"Hmm, well I don't pay attention to people who aren't important," Adam retorted and hopped off the fallen tree he was standing on, he turned and smiled at Hide, "Well, come on guys we can't go burning daylight here and waste our time with something _weak_."

A spark behind Adam the moment he finished that word, Adam was now holding out two knives that he had in his back pocket. The knives holding back the two clawed hands of Nyx, purple flashed on the knives as did Nyx' eyes.

"I thought that would get you started," the foreigner grinned, he could feel the pressure from Nyx' metallic claws as they pressed harder on his knives.

Hide yelped as he started backing away with fear, Reborn dead-legged the boy and said, "Don't back away now, let's go."

"Wha-what? What about Adam?" Hide asked as he witnessed Adam and Nyx square off.

"It's a distraction," said Reborn, his voice hinted impatience, "Adam is allowing us to pass, we should take this chance while we can."

"But...but..." the boy said doubtfully.

"Come on Hide!" Suzuki urged, Hide gave him a startled look as he continued, "That guy is probably doing his best to distract him! So come on!"

"Well-" before Hide could say anything else he was being pulled across the rubble and up the stairs.

**~8~**

When they were long gone, Adam smiled and jumped back from Nyx as it did the same.

"Are you going to follow them?" Adam asked.

"No, you are more...interesting," Nyx spoke in a solid tone.

"That's good," he nodded and stuffed his hands back in his pockets, "I guess now I can show you my real strength then."

**~8~**

They ran as far as they could before they got to a platform on the stairs that was probably for resting on the way up. Hide breathed heavily to try and get his breath back.

"We still have a little bit more to go, but we should be really close to the shrine," Suzuki said brightly.

"While we're resting," Reborn began, "I have a few things for you all."

"You do?" Morita asked.

"Yes," the infant nodded, a pair of red, fingerless gloves were handed to him with a hint of reluctance, "I wish I could have given them to you earlier, but the time has come sooner than I thought."

"They fit," the boy said in surprise as he put them on, he flexed his fist and was amazed when tiny spikes formed on the knuckles.

"The spikes are made of real steel," the infant explained and handed Hanabi a small satchel, "These were given to me by your grandfather, Hanabi."

"Tiny fireworks?" the bomber questioned as she held out a tiny, red tubes with a small wick on each.

"Dynamite, they have as much power as regular-sized dynamite," Reborn corrected, Hanabi fumbled them and put them back in their bag cautiously.

"I _hate_ dynamite! How does that guy even expect me to light these in the first place!?" she exclaimed and rolled her eyes, "It's not like I carry around a thousand lighters like he did!"

"He didn't use lighters, but you should be able to figure it out," Reborn said passively as she scrutinized one of the sticks, he then turned to Suzuki and gave him a pair of boots, "These should be better than the pair you have on already."

The boy blinked and looked down at the shoes he was wearing already, they were regular blue and white sneakers that were almost identical to the ones that Morita and Hide had on. The boots that Reborn was holding were big, black, and rubber; they looked like rain boots or a fisher man's boots.

"What's wrong with my shoes?" he asked, "They're the same pair I use for when I'm running and training."

"These boots are specially designed to help improve your bat-swinging technique," Reborn lied.

_That's a ridiculous lie!_ Hide thought.

"Are you serious? That's awesome!" Suzuki hurriedly put the boots on.

_And he believes it..._ he gaped.

**~8~**

Meanwhile...

Yamamoto searched all over Takesushi for his fishing boots before sneezing.

"Aw geez, where could those boots have gone now?" he sighed hopelessly.

**~8~**

"They're a bit big," Suzuki began as he tried walking in his new boots, "And they feel a bit worn, but if they will really help with my technique then I'll keep them on."

"That's the spirit," Reborn nodded and looked over to Hide, "You should learn from Suzuki's willingness, Hide."

Before Hide could say anything more, Hanabi interrupted and said brightly, "Don't worry about it Boss, I'm sure the thing that Reborn-san will give you will be better than a stinky pair of boots."

"You're not getting anything," the infant stated.

_That's way too blunt!_ he gawked.

"Now that we're done resting we should resume our way towards the shrine," said Suzuki brightly and he quickly added with a grin, "This will also give me a chance to break in my new boots!"

"They smell like fish," Hanabi pointed out.

"That just means they're well worn!" he said cheerfully.

_I have nothing and these guys are supposed to protect me..._Hide thought as he contemplated his oncoming doom.

**~8~**

**Notes from the Author:**

***Geppetto Lorenzini was the original maker and designer of the Box Weapons in KHR, its true check it out.**

***You should all know the small, red and yellow cat mentioned above *cough*Uri*cough***

****Just another side note, but God Boxes are not apart of KHR they are completely my creation and something I came up while bored in my World History Class**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it belongs to Amano Akira**

**Be sure to visit me, echan1263, on the forums! Especially mine, Just another Forum!**


	16. Ch 16: Nyx's Nightmare

When they had reached Namimori Shrine they were surprised at how much of a dump it was. Instead of a beautiful shrine that just looked like some plants had grown over it, which is what one would expect from an abandoned shrine like in the movies, it was trashed and graffiti-ridden. The fences were broken, the shrine's roof had a hole in it, graffiti was sprayed on the open ground in front of the shrine and the walls of the place were sprayed and broken pieces wood were all over the place.

"Wow, this place is a dump," Morita stated the obvious.

"No duh," Hanabi retorted as she kicked a piece of rotten wood out of the way, "What sort of evil lair is this? I expected something more menacing and dark, not some abandoned temple that has graffiti written all over it!"

"Aren't there supposed to be more evil people around too?" Suzuki wondered as he walked around the place, "There were always more evil guys in the movies."

_That's strange..._Hide thought as he looked around as well, _where are all the bad guys? I thought that when we got up here there would be some big fight; gramps only said that we should go to the shrine, but nobody's here..._

"You all watch too many movies," said Reborn as he walked towards the shrine, "The true secret is right in front of you."

Reborn kept on walking towards the shrine until he passed two stone pillars that were on either side of the temple, and then he disappeared from everyone's sight but they could all still hear the infant's voice.

"Reborn?" Hide yelped.

"You just have to ignore reality for a while," the voice echoed.

They all looked at each other before silently agreeing to follow Reborn, and one by one they all disappeared.

**~8~**

"Hm, it's a real nice day out," Adam sighed as he looked up at the drifting clouds in the sky, "It's a shame that I have to do a fight on a day like this."

A clawed hand made a swipe towards his head but Adam moved out of the way before it could happen.

"That was bad," he said, "That could have seriously injured me."

"That's the aim," Nyx spoke, it launched once again towards him with its claws glinting in the sunlight.

Adam ducked down as Nyx came closer and grabbed the Box's legs. Nyx stumbled onto the ground and down the flight of stairs; Adam turned around and sat upright so he could watch the Box crash down the steps. He whistled when the body stopped on a large rock, it laid still and there were no signs of movement.

"That was easier than expected," Adam mused as he stood up, "With something called a God Box, you normally expect it to be super strong and difficult to handle," he turned around and started walking up the steps, "It was only strong and, quite frankly, _stupid_."

The body of Nyx remained still for a few seconds as Adam walked away; a metallic finger twitched and a purple eye opened, it moved up, down, right, left, the pupils shrunk and dilated, it blinked. An arm shot out and a hand landed onto the rock the body landed on, the hand felt the rock for a few moments before crushing it. Nyx stood up from the wreckage of broken trees and shattered stair steps and looked at its other arm, which was bent backwards; there was a sickening crack as it pushed the arm to a correct angle and twisted the arm so the hand was facing the right side.

Adam turned around when he heard the boulder collapse, he glanced at the crumbled rocks and said, "Wow, so you aren't stupid after all, but you do seem to be troublesome."

Nyx half-turned towards Adam, its purple eyes flashed and gave a heated stare straight at Adam's blue eyes. Adam blinked and smiled.

"I'm guessing you can't feel physical pain, but what about emotional?" he said aloud, "If you didn't have emotions, then you probably wouldn't have attacked me back there when I called you weak and I'm guessing you're pissed that I called you stupid. Or did you not hear that bit?"

Its metallic claws dug into the concrete stairs and pulled a good chunk of rock out.

"Ah, guess you didn't hear me that time..." he gulped and slowly back away, "Look here, can't we just talk this out like regular huma-"

The concrete block whirled past Adam's head.

"Heh, guess you don't like being called human either," he said and started to run away.

Nyx ran at lightening speed towards Adam, it clenched its fingers together to turn its hand into a sharp knife, and then it lunged towards Adam's stomach. The boy did not have time to avoid the attack and the knife-like hand dug into his stomach, Nyx waved its arm and tossed Adam into two trees, both of which broke in half on impact. He groaned and clutched at his gut in pain, blood trickled down from his blond hair to his nose.

"Dammit!" he hissed under his breath, "I didn't think you would be _this_ strong..."

Nyx silently walked towards the blue-eyed boy, it unclenched its blood-stained claws and made a scissor-like noise by moving its red metallic fingers around.

"Or that's what I'd say if I was weak," Adam grinned and threw a knife into Nyx's head.

The Box stumbled back while trying to get the knife out of its forehead, when it finally pulled the knife out two more knives were stabbed into its feet. Nyx tried tugging at its feet but couldn't take one step, it looked up and another two knives dug into its shoulders.

"Now, now," Adam smiled as he handled a knife in his hand with care, "I wonder where I'll put this next one," he sighed, "If only sis was here, then she could give me advice on where to put this knife."

"I still have my hands," Nyx stated and bent down to pull the knives out, the moment it touched the handles it was electrocuted.

"Oh yes, these are sis' modified knives," Adam said in a forgetful tone, "They have a DNA imprint device on them so that if anyone, or thing, touches these 1000 volts of electricity will coarse through them."

Nyx stared at the knives and looked at Adam expectantly.

"You're probably wondering why they work with me then, huh?" he said, "Well since my sister and I have a _very _distinct blood type and factor in that we're twins, our DNA is almost identical to each others. Basically, unless you are a Grandhart you can't use these knives."

Nyx was silent for a few seconds and looked up to the sky, "...Grandhart...Grandhart..." it mumbled as if trying to remember something.

Adam raised an eye brow, "Yes?"

"Grandhart..." Nyx continued until its eyes widened as if it had just remembered, "Grandhart!" it said in astonishment.

"What?" he asked with a hint of impatience.

"Grandhart..." it said darkly, and gave its violet glare towards Adam.

"What is it!" he asked impatiently.

"Grandhart...Daniel Grandhart..." it said in an even darker tone.

"Eh?" Adam blinked, "Ah, I think you have me confused with-"

Nyx reached down and grabbed the knives; one could visibly see the streaks of electricity crackle on the Box's arms as it pulled the knives out and threw them to the ground. It then tugged at the knives in its shoulders, the electricity crackled on them as well but Nyx was completely unfazed and didn't seem to pay any attention to it at all.

"That's not good," Adam gulped and tried to continue, "As I was saying, I think you have me confused with someone else now."

"You won't weasel your way out of this Grandhart," Nyx glared, "First you're a girl, then you escape as a young boy? Should have expected something like that from a scientist as clever as you."

"Yeah, you definitely have me confused with someone else," he sighed and then remembered something Nyx said, "Wait, did you say girl?"

**~8~**

Hide breathed out and opened an eye cautiously, then he very carefully opened both eyes and was surprised at the difference of location they had entered. They were in what could have been the inside of the temple, if the temple was half an acre big and had a grand hallway within it. The 'inside' was decorated with traditional Japanese screen doors and wooden floors; the screen doors had beautiful paintings of scarlet flowers and green bonsai trees. It was a drastic difference from the outside of the shrine since this place looked like it was unused, but there was an eerie feel that it was built just for the purpose of looking at.

"Did we just get transported to another dimension or something?" Hanabi was the first to ask.

"Yeah, is this seriously the inside of the shrine?" Hide asked as well.

"No, now this is part of the underground base in Namimori," said Reborn as he began to walk forward.

"There's an underground base in Namimori!"

Reborn was quiet for a few seconds and said thoughtfully, "It was a long time ago, you'll learn as we go on. But you should know, that this place has been completely out of use for more than 30 years."

Hide gulped and looked around nervously as he followed Reborn, he would much rather have Reborn explain the whole thing right now. The 'base', Hide was slightly concerned of what to call this place, was slightly creepy with the perfectly conditioned floor boards that did not look aged one bit, the painted screen doors that looked as if they were brand new, and the fancy antiques that stood on pedestals as they walked past, the whole place looked as if it was polished and waxed just for them. Hide thought of it as strange that the whole place looked brand new, and not over 30 years old.

"Does the whole, uh, 'base' seriously look like this?" asked Suzuki as he stared at the screen doors.

"No, this is only a specific part of the place, we just need to keep walking down this hallway until we find a metal door."

Reborn led the way as they walked onwards, slowly the beautiful screen doors became plain screen doors and then plain walls, the polished floorboards somehow disappeared and became concrete. The change was so gradual that no one noticed it, but then again Hide was too scared and nervous to notice. The hall led them to a large, metallic door that had a flashing green light above it and a keypad attached to the wall besides it.

"Lift me up," Reborn ordered, Suzuki quickly bent down and picked the infant up to the keypad. His tiny hands pressed some of the buttons on the keypad and a large buzzer blared at them, a green flashing light became red, and the door parted in half.

"That was slightly unexpected," said Reborn, "The alarms went off but the door still opened."

"What does that mean?" Hide dared to ask.

"...It means that something _wants_ us to come in."

"Then let's not waste any time!" Hanabi stated as she walked forward, "If it wants us to come in so badly then it's-"

There was a loud booming sound and both Hanabi and the ground underneath her collapsed.

"Gokudera-san!" Hide shrieked and ran to the hole.

"Hanabi-san!" Suzuki ran over to the hole as well and peered down it, nothing but black was down the hole.

"Wha-what just happened...?" Morita stammered and pointed at the crumbled hole.

"A hole," Reborn stated, "This place _has _been abandoned for more than 30 years. Plus, this place also has multiple levels and Hanabi just fell through the first floor," Reborn walked towards the hole and looked down it; he picked up a piece of crumbled floor and tossed it down the hole. No sound. "The floors here will be weak or they might be beginning to rot away, so you guys should probably be careful."

"What about back there!" Hide questioned as he jerked a thumb to the door way that held the 'perfect traditional Japanese' atmosphere.

"That place didn't have lower floors," the infant replied as he walked around the hole, "This place, however, can go down to twenty levels."

"TWENTY FLOORS!" the boy yelped, "Gokudera-san could have dropped _that_ far!"

"Maybe, but she may have also dropped five floors, or two," Reborn stated dismissively, "Well, we should keep going."

"You mean we're going to walk all twenty floors on this place?" Suzuki asked.

"No, maybe until we find another God Box, hopefully a more talkative one than the last," he said, "_Then _we'll go find Hanabi."

"You mean we're not going to find Hanabi?"

"Nope."

"But Reborn, she could be hurt!" Hide argued in vain.

"Hanabi is strong enough to find her way back to us," the infant stated while walking ahead; Hide, Morita and Suzuki inched around the large hole in the ground and tried to catch up the unusually fast infant, "She's like a dog in that way."

"What if she's hurt?" Hide asked, Reborn didn't say anything but Suzuki rested a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure she'll be alright," he said with an encouraging grin, "Hanabi-san might be tougher than we think."

His friend gulped and nodded, he glanced back at the hole before walking onwards.

**~8~**

Like a green sea, the grass waved gently with the wind that picked a blade of grass up and blew it through the air every now and then. Hanabi sat looking up at the blue sky as the clouds drifted across the landscape; she stared at the sky with a look of melancholy.

"I think Reborn was wrong, this place _has_ to be filled with different portals to other dimensions," she stated and spread her arms out on the grass, "How could an underground base have an endless field of grass with a sky above it. It's either that or this is all a hologram but they didn't have that sort of technology back then, right?"

Hanabi realized that she was now talking to herself so she quickly got to her feet and looked around.

"No, there's not time for this," she spoke, "I need to find a way out of this place so I can get back with the Twelfth!"

She surveyed the area before randomly picking a direction to walk towards.

"That's the wrong way," she stopped and looked at the person just spoke.

"And who are you?" she asked suspiciously while walking towards the person.

"I don't have a name," the person shrugged and flipped its long, red hair over its shoulder, "But you are in heaven now, why would you want to leave?"

"Heaven?" Hanabi raised an eyebrow and scoffed at the person, "If this was heaven there would be angels and clouds everywhere, not an endless field grass and crap like that."

"There are different ideas of heaven," the person said peacefully and surveyed the place with a content look on its face.

"So what the hell are you? An angel?" she asked.

"Hmm, yes you could say that about me," the person nodded and closed its red eyes while smiling.

Hanabi frowned and stared at the person in silence, she stayed silent as she looked back up to the blue sky. "No," she finally spoke, she turned around on one foot and threw her fist into the so-called 'angel's porcelain face.

**~8~**

**Note from the Author: My second attempt to write a fight scene, hopefully none of you will be confused by the writing. I decided to put this chapter out early, mainly for the hell of it. Sooo come visit the forums! Remember mine? It's called "Just Another Forum". And yes, I will continue to shamelessly publicize it until people actually post stuff other than me.**

ased on the sole fact that they are both angry, albeit beautiful, people.


	17. Ch 17: Sweet Childhood Memories

**This chapter is dedicated to the people who wanted to see what Old Man Gokudera is like.**

**~8~**

Hanabi sent the so-called 'angel' flying when she punched it in the face. She shook her hand in the air after the punch as she watched the body fall to the ground, only to see it do a back flip in the air and land on its feet in a crouched down position.

"As far as I'm concerned, angels don't have red hair or eyes," Hanabi stated as she reached for her cards in her back pocket; she then added as an afterthought, "Also, angels have wings, it's a rule that they should have wings."

"That's some strange logic," the red-head stated as it stood up and brushed a hand through its hair to move the hair out of its face, "I was even dressed for the part as well."

It was wearing a white button-up shirt and white pants; it had long, shockingly red hair and almost evil-looking, red eyes; it had a pure white smile, which annoyed Hanabi to no end, smile was so white that its teeth were almost unseen. The only other color it had, other than its hair and eyes, was its red leather shoes.

"Not the shoes," the girl pointed out, "And the eyes and hair, just from first glance I can tell that you look like the demon."

"A demon?" it grinned and put its hands in its pockets, "I think I was called that at some point by a number of people."

Hanabi observed the 'person' with suspicion, a breeze began to pick up and the 'person's red hair picked up in the wind. _Wait, your guy had_ blue _hair? My guy had _red _hair_, Hanabi remembered Morita saying.

Something fell out of the 'person's pocket as it took a hand out of its pocket, "Oops," it spoke as it bent down to pick it up, "dropped something."

A red bead shined in its hands, Hanabi's eyes widened. _This is one of Loki's beads_...she remembered Hide's grandfather saying. She quickly took out her playing cards and threw one towards Loki.

"Interesting," Loki said as it stared straight at the spinning card.

The smoke and dust filled the air; a large gust blew right before the explosions so the smoke didn't stay in the air for long. But Loki stayed in the same place, completely unmoved and unfazed by the attack. Hanabi's eyes widened when she saw this didn't even look like it was hit by the explosions one bit.

"Tch," she scowled, "That card had my newest chemicals on it. Well at least I know it reacts faster."

"Chemicals?" Loki mused, "So you make your own chemicals for those cards then? Some might call you a genius for that, but your explosions are hardly effective. They are probably only a little more powerful than regular gun powder."

"Then I guess they are not enough to take out a Box Weapon then," Hanabi frowned as she remembered horrible childhood memories with her grandfather from when she was younger...

**~8~**

_"Hanabi-chan, this is Uri," six year-old Hanabi blinked at the small red and yellow kitten that her grandfather set in front of her and brightened._

_"K-kitty!" she said in awe and held out a hand to pet the cat._

_"No! Hanabi-chan, Uri is a _very _bad kitty!" her grandfather yelled and pulled the cat away from her, the cat in turn hissed and clawed at the man's arms, "Gaah!"_

_The cat fell out of his arms and Uri jumped to the ground and ran behind six year-old Hanabi._

_"Kitty!" she said happily while patting the cat on the head, it purred as a reply._

_"Geh...it _likes _her," her grandfather grimaced._

_"Grandpa, the kitty looks tired," Hanabi pointed out as she held the sleepy cat up._

_"Well, _I'm _tired Hanabi-chan," the man sighed and sat down in a brown, leather chair; he bent down and picked the girl up and rested her on his knee before continuing, "Hanabi-chan, do you know anything about explosives?"_

_"Only that they make really loud noises," she said._

_"Let me tell you something else about them," he said with a hint of pride, "They are like fireworks; they make beautiful lights, depending on what chemicals are in them, and they can go up into the sky like rockets."_

_"Fireworks?"_

_"Yup," he nodded and rested a finger on the girl's nose, "Just like the ones that you're named after."_

_Hanabi was silent for a few seconds before saying blatantly, "Not interested."_

_"Wha-what!" the grandfather gaped as his granddaughter in surprise._

_"Not interested," she repeated, "The explosives that you use are too loud, I don't like fireworks either."_

_"You don't?" he said in shock, "I thought you loved fireworks!"_

_"Nope," she shook her head, "I like reading, and kitties, and math. Fireworks and explosives are too loud and distracting."_

_Her grandfather gave her a hopeless look mixed with utter surprise; he regained his composure and said, "What if those explosives could get rid of distractions, Hanabi-chan?"_

_Hanabi listened._

_"Explosives are not only pretty, but they can also get rid of a ton of troublesome and annoying things."_

_"Like Uncle Lambo?"_

_"Like Uncle Lambo," the bomber chuckled and ruffled the future bomber's hair._

_"I'm still not interested," she said stubbornly._

_Gokudera stared at his granddaughter blankly for a few seconds before reaching into his pocket and taking something out, he pushed the thing into her tiny hands and said, "Well then, here."_

_Hanabi opened her hands and stared at the deck of cards._

_"They're what I use when I'm in a pinch, they certainly aren't as effective as _real_explosives, but they will do for you," he said._

_"But I don't wanna use explosives!"_

_"Too bad."_

**~8~**

And Hanabi remembered those horrible days with contempt; she hated explosives and would always hate explosives, she didn't even like her own cards all that much. In her past and current opinion, explosives were weak, hazardous, loud, and extraordinarily sloppy when hitting a target since they could also hit the owner and any bystanders as well.

And the fact that her grandfather forced her to go through days and days of hellish training, so that she could be called a 'prodigy child' and be a master in any type of explosive did not help her like them at all. In fact the only reason that she even _did_ use her cards was because there were the only type of weapon she knew how to use, not to mention that they were also the least loud and more concentrated explosives in her arsenal, so the explosion didn't spread out all over the place.

"I presume you make your own chemicals?" Loki asked.

Hanabi snapped out of her flashbacks and her mental-rantings of contempt to come back to the real world, or where ever she was, and said, "Didn't you already ask that? Yeah I do, what's it to you?"

"Well, as it just so happens," Loki began; it reached into its pocket and pulled out a shining red bead, "I do too."

**~8~**

"All you have to do is answer my question," Adam sighed as he ducked and dodged the sharp blades on Nyx' fingertips.

It lunged at him and cut his cheek, to which Adam replied by quickly grabbing Nyx' arm and throwing it against a tree. The tree, and trees behind it, either broke in half or imploded when Nyx hit them. Its body stood up and brushed splinters and leaves off of itself.

"That's right, your body is invincible..." he sighed, he turned to run up the stairs before flinching.

_Crap!_ Adam thought as his hand flew to his side, he withdrew the hand and saw blood on it. _This must be from when he stabbed me back there, luckily he didn't hit any vital organs, but still, if I don't get this taken care of soon then there won't be any point to defeating this guy._

He glanced up the stairs and added to his thought, _but first I need to find flatter ground to fight on._ Adam trudged along the steps, blood trailing his every step and clouds coming in from earlier and bringing an instant shower of rain.

"Great," he sighed and realized that his whole body was becoming numb from either loss of blood or pain, "Something to help the mood of things, now if only there was lightening," right on cue a thunder bolt crackled in the distance and boomed loudly from far off, Adam rolled his eyes, "Of course."

He resumed climbing the steps, which seemed much more steeper and narrower than before, and tried to wipe the falling water out of his face. One of the stones broke under his weight and he tripped up the stairs. He laid there on the steps, covered in blood and almost unconscious, his vision was becoming fuzzy but he still looked down the steps and saw the vague form of Nyx coming closer.

"Damn it," he hissed, Nyx loomed closer and closer, "I don't wanna go out like this..."

His numbed hand reached for one of the knives that fell out of his pocket when he fell, the hand grasped the handle and he glanced up at Nyx who was standing right over him. He smiled genuinely at Nyx and said:

"Good game." the knife was thrown with the last of Adam's strength into the Box's chest, causing it to stumble backwards and back down the stairs. And somehow, by pure luck, a traveling lightening bolt came from the sky and hit the Box.

Adam witnessed this and was far to tired to make any other comment than, "That was unexpected." and then he closed his eyes.

**~8~**

Hide stopped walking abruptly, causing the boys that were following him to dog pile him.

"Oops, sorry Hide," Morita apologized as he and Suzuki got up, "Why'd you stop so suddenly?"

"Geh," the small boy got up and rubbed the back of his head, "I don't know, it just felt like something big happened just now."

"We're walking down an empty, abandoned underground base, what's so big that could have happened?" Suzuki joked as he helped him up.

Hide shrugged and looked around, "Where's Reborn?"

They all looked around again and shrugged at each other.

"We were just following him, right?" Morita asked.

"Maybe he's just playing Hide and Seek with us?" Suzuki suggested.

Hide gave Suzuki a doubtful look but called out to the infant anyways, "Reborn? Reborn, this isn't funny! Where are you?"

The other two joined in with their calls for Reborn, but the infant didn't come back to them. After a few minutes, they all exchanged worried looks.

"Where did he go?" Suzuki wondered while scratching his head curiously.

"He didn't get in any trouble, did he?" Morita said worriedly.

"No, Reborn's..." Hide began but his voice faltered, "Reborn's just...just went off on his own way...probably."

They didn't question the "probably" in the sentence but still stared at Hide with an expectant look.

"Uh, um," Hide squirmed under the pressure as he realized that he was now being the leader, "This-This hall looks like it goes straight doesn't it? If we keep going we'll find an elevator or stairs."

The boys seemed satisfied with this answer and allowed Hide to lead the way. They began walking in an awkward silence until Suzuki mentioned a game they could play to unnerve them; it was a talking game, where they would talk about what they would do over the rest of the summer and for other holidays.

"Other than working at Takesushi and practicing with the team, I'm gonna go to the beach with Hide," he said and grinned to the boy, "And then we'll go to all the festivals like last year, right?"

Hide nodded cheerfully, Morita brightened and said, "We can all go to the beach together! But if I'm going then Megumi might want to come."

"That's fine!" he said instantly and eagerly.

The tall boy laughed and continued, "And I'll be one of the drum beaters for the festival in town too!"

"You will? That's so cool!" the other boys looked at Morita with awe.

"What about you, Hide?" Suzuki asked.

"Me?" the boy blinked.

"Yeah, what are you gonna do with the rest of your summer?"

Hide was quiet for a few seconds before saying thoughtfully, "Well of course I'm gonna go to the beach with you and Morita, Suzuki. And I'll definitely go to most of the festivals...and then Reborn will most likely training me to hell during the summer. But I don't really know what else I'm gonna do."

"Then let's change gears!" Suzuki declared cheerfully, "Next holiday: Christmas!"

"Christmas? That's forever away!" Morita complained playfully.

"Hide, you're gonna visit your gramps this year right?" Suzuki asked, "You talked about it last year when your mom said it would be nice to go to Italy."

"Gramps?" Hide raised an eyebrow, "I think you mean Grandfather. And yeah, I'll probably end up going to Italy with my dad."

"No way! Hide, your grandfather lives in Italy?" Morita said enthusiastically, "I didn't know you were Italian!"

"I'm not," he sighed and continued grumpily, "My grandfather is Japanese, he married a Japanese woman, and my dad married a Japanese woman, so therefore I'm Japanese. The only reason my Grandfather lives in Italy is because he's a complete and total weirdo who decided to not settle down in Japan but in some crazy foreign country."

"Hide doesn't really like his grandfather," Suzuki whispered to Morita.

"I kinda guessed that," the boxer muttered and asked, "But why?"

"Hide's grandfather...sort of traumatized him when he was little," Suzuki said slowly, Hide was too busy mentally venting off his anger to hear anything that they were talking about, "His grandfather came to Japan when we were six, he told us some stories about when _he_ lived in Japan and they seriously freaked the both of us out. I remember it very well, after Hide's gramps got done telling his stories he looked at Hide with a sad look and said, 'You'll go through that some day too.'"

Morita gaped in horror at the remark and then asked, "So why aren't you traumatized?"

"Because he wasn't _my_ grandfather," he stated flatly, "Just the fact that he's even related to him, freaks Hide out."

"Hey guys!" Hide called to them, they both froze and then relaxed when they saw him pointing to something, "Check this out!"

He was pointing down another hall that was connected to the hall they were walking in. Suzuki and Morita ran over to where Hide was and looked down the hall. In large, black letters was a name that stretched down the hall: Tsukamoto V1.

"Who's Tsukamoto?" Morita questioned.

Hide shrugged and said, "Who knows? Maybe this hall was named after that person, like in some buildings where they have places named after people who donated a lot of money."

"So someone gave money for this place to be built?" the boxer asked.

"These are times when we need Reborn," the boy sighed, and for the first time in his life he actually missed Reborn.

"Well since there's another hall here, do you think we should keep going down the one we're on already?" Suzuki asked, "This way may have stairs, but so could this way. And it's probably not the best idea to split up either."

Hide realized that the question was being directed towards him and remembered that he was the leader again. He looked from one hall to the next and thought that the one with the title painted on the wall was probably a more important hall than one without a title painted on it. The decision was also slightly random as well.

"Let's change and go this way," he said and led the way while the other two boys followed obediently.

They walked pass the giant, bold letters on their left and kept walking until they reached a large plastic board that was hanging on the side of a wall. The board was covered in a large piece of paper that had dots, lines, and squares drawn over it; the large red dot at the top of the board that was most noticeable, helpfully read: You Are Here.

"That's suspiciously helpful," Hide said uncertainly, "Just when we get lost, suddenly a map shows up."

"Who cares, it was here when we needed it most and maybe there's one of these on each floor!" said Suzuki dismissively.

"It's says that we're going the right way too!" said Morita happily.

"And look, this is where Hanabi-san fell down so she's probably somewhere around here!" he continued while pointing at a spot on the sign, the baseball player examined the text and then asked, "What is a 'Storm Room'? Is that something they had in the past?"

"Who knows, let's head down there though," the boxer stated.

"Right!"

_They trust it so easily! _Hide gawked, he glanced back to the map and said quietly, "Something's funny about all this..."

"Hide!" the boy realized he was now not the leader anymore and also that he was being left behind.

"Coming!" he said quickly and ran after them.

**~8~**

**Note from the Author: Well, that's the end of this chapter! In order to garner up some posts in my new forum: Just another Forum, I will now be taking any questions over this chapter and what is generally happening in Skywards under the topic heading: On the topic of future fictions...**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, but to Amano Akira**


	18. Ch 18: Hanabi's Explosives

**Note From the Author: Heya there folks! *sigh* I seriously wish you would all join my forum, Just Another Forum! Anyways, I'm starting a new project called 'Birthday Fiction Project!', in which a bunch of authors gather together and write a birthday fiction collaboration entirely dedicated to their favorite KHR character!**

**Want to join? Sure! Anyone can! Just go onto my forum and reply to the topic headed 'Birthday Fiction Project!' and that's seriously all you have to do...other than help write the fiction of course! And who know? Maybe you'll get an idea for another story in the process!**

**~8~**

Water poured into the hole and then swirled away into the drain on the ground. Anna stared silently at the drain as the water swirled away; the hole the water came from was a metallic tube that descended down from the cave's roof. The girl got up from where she was sitting in the fetal position and walked over to put her bloodied and scratched up hands in the water, she cringed slightly at the stinging sensation but kept her hands in the water to get the crusted up blood washed away.

She took her hands out after a few minutes and stared silently at them as new blood began to form on the scratches. A large clunking sound echoed in the cave and then there was a sudden illumination to which Anna quickly covered her eyes.

"Wha...?" she moved her arm slightly so that she could almost see what had opened the door and squinted her eyes, how long had it been since she last saw light...?

"It's time to get up, dear little Grandhart," a voice echoed, it was that...that _thing_.

Anna had no clue as to the details of how she got in the cave, especially with such a number of injuries, but she did find out that the thing that was walking towards her was not a human. Its eyes were a hollow indigo color, its face was pale, and its smile was possibly one of the creepiest things in the world, and _she_ was a professional _hitman_!

"Who are you?" she asked slowly.

"Morpheus," it stated while fidgeting with the collar of its shirt, a lavender colored dress shirt, "But you should know that, Grandhart."

Anna surveyed the figure and said, "My name is Grandhart, but I'm pretty sure that you have me confused with someone else."

"Nope, I'm not," it shook its head and waved a hand, "There is a 32.876% DNA match between you and the professor: Daniel Grandhart; and 32.876% is high enough for you to be Daniel Grandhart, you probably just scrambled your DNA a little bit and turned yourself into a little girl to hide from us."

"That sounds far too troublesome to be the work of either me or my brother," she stated while looking back at her hands, "And DNA Mixers are extremely hard to use, plus that kind of technology is far too advance and is only available to a few select Families within the Mafia.

"Heh, not for someone with a mind like you," Morpheus smirked and tapped its head, "Geniuses are hard to come by, but you certainly are one if you are able to make your own DNA Mixer. Therefore you _are _Daniel Grandhart, albeit shorter and a different girl."

_This could possibly be one of the dumbest conversations I have ever had_, Anna thought miserably, _I don't even think I _have _a relative named Daniel, my dad's name was Jacob and my grandmother made her maiden name as our family name, and her name was Alyssa._

"I don't even know anyone named Daniel!" she said stubbornly.

Morpheus frowned, apparently not liking this answer, and turned around, "Until you stop lying you won't be able to get out of this cave."

"But I'm not Daniel Grandhart!" she yelled as the door shut.

Anna sighed and rested her scratched-up hands on her blue eyes, she muttered into her palm, "My hands hurt."

**~8~**

Explosives could be extremely dangerous, but sometimes really useful, such as when ever you are facing a large group of enemies in a narrow place. They were not as useful, however, when it is only two people and they both happen to use explosives. Well...one of them wasn't even a person, but it was still attacking Hanabi with explosions!

Hanabi swerved on the grassy plain as she avoided the falling beads, one fell next to her foot and she quickly withdrew it and jumped out of the way.

"You're quite quick," Loki spoke as it threw even more beads, "Why don't we bring this to the next level?"

"What?" Hanabi looked over to the Box and almost fell when the terrain and surroundings changed from an endless grassy field to a dense forest that was drizzling rain. She stopped herself from almost tripping on a tree root and she exclaimed, "So these are all holograms after all!"

"Not the brightest are you?" Loki mocked, to which Hanabi's eyebrow twitched and she threw one of her sharpest cards towards Loki.

"For your information," she said in a deep tone while the smoke cleared from the explosion, the trees around her were, of course, completely unaffected by it. "I happen to have the highest GPA* in Namimori Middle and I'm also one of the top students at Mafia School."

"They must be lacking in standards then," the voice laughed a shrill cackle through out the light drizzle.

The silver-haired girl took out a leather bound deck of cards, a flaming skull was imprinted on the leather; she slid one of the cards out, revealing that they had the same flaming skull on them as well. Her green eyes narrowed as she glanced over at the cards.

Loki's voice hummed and said, "Those are some pretty fancy looking cards ya got there, are these more powerful than the last ones?"

"Yes," she lied, in all truth all the decks she used were pretty random and she just grabbed as many as she could hold without people finding out about them. And she had just taken this deck out from one of her long sleeves, but she still instantly recognized the deck as the first ones her grandfather gave her.

"You're lying," it smiled.

Hanabi frowned and said, "Really? These cards are made of different chemicals that are extremely potent, that's why they're in a leather packet instead of those paper ones that get wet easily."

Now this was the truth, Hanabi remembered that when she first threw them that they made a small crater in the earth and almost blew her away. She also remembered her grandfather laughing at her and telling her that 'this is nothing!' However she also remembered her grandfather as an egotistic man that was completely and totally full of himself. It wasn't that Hanabi _hated_ her grandfather, she actually loved him very much, but it was just that she didn't particularly like anyone that was older than her, which was a pretty wide range.

She narrowly dodged the red bead as it rolled towards her; she jumped and landed in a puddle of water.

"This may all be holograms," she said while spitting the water out, "But why the hell is the water real!"

"Because it has to be as real as possible!" a voice cackled nearby.

"As real as possible? Why?"

"It's best to train if the situation is more dangerous, right?"

_Train?_ the word clicked in Hanabi's head like a hidden piece to a puzzle, though it didn't seem like it she had been wondering where she was this entire time. Now it was all coming together, she turned on one foot and started in a run while dodging the holographic trees. As she ran, she started to take another card out of the leather deck, a card appeared in her fingers and she threw it forward.

"Trying to blow up the hologram projectors?" a shrill laughter buzzed in Hanabi's ears as the thrown card disappeared into the fake trees, "Are you seriously that stupid?"

"This is a training room right?" she said while still running, "That would mean that the hologram projectors would be protected by some sort of wall or case, so I'm not stupid."

"Then what could you possibly be aiming at?"

"I think the question is," the silver-haired girl smiled evilly, "Are _you_ the stupid one?"

An explosion sounded ahead of Hanabi as she picked her pace up as she ran towards the explosion. It was no surprise to her that more explosions sounded behind her.

"Unlike dynamite, exploding cards won't go off while in mid-air," she huffed under her breath, "They have to hit something in order to explode, so all I have to do is throw these cards as far as I can until it hits something."

Loki's laughter filled the air along with the rain, "So what? You might be heading towards a wall for all you know! And when you do...WHAM! You'll be running head-first into a cement wall! Hahahahah!"

Hanabi ignored it and kept on running, though she seemed slightly more cautious in her running than before now. The explosions still occurred, some of the beads just exploded at her feet, but Hanabi was quick and could be able to pick her feet up fast enough before they exploded.

"I'm not _that _stupid!" she argued while keeping her quick pace, "You think I'm running in a random direction but I'm not!"

_"You're going the wrong way..."_ she remembered Loki saying to her when she first met it. Loki's high-pitched laughter filled the air as she ran, almost as if either mocking her or trying desperately to scare her off but Hanabi persisted through the rain until she ran into a wall.

She got up slowly while holding her probably broken nose, she spat out some blood that was swirling in her mouth and groaned, "Geez-us! If I knew it was gonna hurt this bad I would have at least held out my hands or something! Ugh!"

"Hmph, so you found the wall, you don't think you're going to be able to find the door out do you?" Loki's voice echoed around the trees.

Hanabi looked at the 'wall' she had run into, it was a bit iffy that the wall was there because it just looked like there was even more forest to walk through, but that was what you would get for running around in a hologram training room.

"If this is a training room, there has to be a way out," she huffed under her breathe, "Most likely some sort of ladder since a door would be too easy to get out of."

It frustrated Hanabi that Loki could have been standing somewhere watching her, grinning ear to ear with that horribly annoying grin and its horribly annoyingly white teeth. Hanabi reached her hands out in front of her until she felt the wall, and she searched with her hands for any bump or crack or anything! She waved her arms on the wall and heard Loki's cynical laughter.

"Hahah! Is that your plan now? Do you even know how big this room is?" the high-pitched laughter annoyed Hanabi deeply.

"No," she said, she realized that her broken nose was making her voice sound nasally, "but I can still try."

This response received more laughter and Loki's voice cackled, "You are hilarious! How about we make a game out of this, eh? Find the ladder and I won't kill you!"

"Let me guess, you'll start throwing those weird beads at me, right?" she said miserably.

Loki made a sound that sounded like it was copying a siren and said, "Wrong! Well...kinda right, since this type of environment doesn't seem to be affecting you, I'll take it up a notch shall I?"

Hanabi blinked and she was now on some sort of bay without any trees bit a lot of sand, wind was harshly blowing and whipping at her hair and the rain now felt like a horde pebbles were being thrown at her.

"And I'll also give you a bit of a head start too!" she could barely hear the voice as rain and wind rang her ears, but Hanabi persisted as she groped the wall for any crack or bar or anything...and then she felt the ground shake, something like an angry earthquake, and for a split second the holograms and storming winds and rains stopped, she didn't see everything but she did see that she was in a huge room and she could see a ladder and a door. But it was only for a split second and she was surprised that she did not see Loki, but that didn't really matter now. She saw the door!

"Oops, sorry about that, Japan has way too many earthquakes now doesn't it?" that annoying Box echoed.

The girl swept her hands frantically along the wall, she knew she was close it was only a couple of feet away and no amount of explosions, or storms, or anything was going to stop her! Her hand hit the iron bar harshly and she gaped at the almost rusted bars that were hanging unrealistically in midair. The wind and rain rippled around her and almost blinded her from anything far away, but she could see the bars almost floating mockingly at her in the air.

"This is so stupid!" she growled as she angrily grabbed the lowest bar and started climbing, when she reaching a point where there were no more bars she waved her hand around the wall until she felt a handle and she grasped at it.

Like going through some other dimension, she yanked open the door and climbed into a dark control room that looked like what the inside of a spaceship would look like, blinking lights, metallic control panels and all. Hanabi huffed and sighed tiredly.

"That was the dumbest battle in the world!" she panted tiredly, "And that was too easy! I wasn't even hit by one of those explosions!"

She wiped the rain's water out of her eyes and her eyes met with red converse shoes.

"Hello there!" that annoyingly white smile pissed Hanabi off.

**~8~**

The map bothered Hide, the map that had a large red dot that said 'You Are Here' on it. It kept reoccurring in his mind and he had a feeling it was going to keep bothering him until he resolved his suspicion over it, or until he found Reborn. Reborn seemed to have answers for everything.

"Hide!" Morita's voice boomed in the small boy's ear, which in turn squeaked and almost fell.

"Agh, sorry, sorry!" the boxer quickly apologized, "I was just worried since you hadn't been talking in awhile."

"D-don't worry about it," Hide shook his head, "I'm just bit nervous is all, but I'm sure everything will be okay."

"Hide! Sakuraba! I found stairs!" Suzuki called to them, "Their right next to an elevator too!

"Right!" Morita ran towards Suzuki, Hide walked slowly and cautiously.

"Geez, where _is_ that tutor when I need him," he gulped.

**~8~**

"Holy crap!" Hanabi yelled as she backed away quickly, Loki slowly rose up from its chair.

The outfit Loki was now wearing was drastically different from the one inside the training room. Instead of its white suit, Loki was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with a bright green t-shirt over it. It had a long pair or acid-wash jeans that were so long they became baggy at its waist, and its shoes were the same red converse. It didn't look all that different from when Hanabi was inside the training room, the smile was the same, it was still a deathly looking pail, and its ruby red eyes were also the same. But its hair was not long but it was instead cut and shorter.

"Where did you get the change of outfit?" Hanabi asked.

"You really _aren't_ the brightest one, eh?" Loki sighed as it practically sauntered around the room, "Let me spell it out for you: That-was-a-hologram."

"You mean you weren't in there that whole time!" she yelled.

"Of course not, who else would be managing the difficulty levels of the Storm Room," it said and then added as an afterthought, "Plus, it would be far too troublesome if I actually got hurt."

Hanabi's eye twitched and exclaimed while pointing an accusing finger, "Coward!"

"Oh come _on_, I wouldn't say _coward_," the Box smiled in amusement, "And how was _I_ supposed to know that you would actually find your way up here?"

"You practically begged me to come up here!"

"Yes well," Loki shrugged, "You don't have any proof that that was the case."

"Proof!" Hanabi scoffed, "You were all 'Let's play a game' and 'this is best place to train!' You practically gave it away that this was a training room and that the door was high up!"

"No I didn't."

"Yes you _did_!" Hanabi sighed and groaned, "That's it. I'm leaving."

Loki's Cheshire Cat grin creep Hanabi out, not to mention that the girl believed that her nose was broken from running into an invisible wall, and she was tired. And to Hanabi being tired was reason enough to skip out on a battle that could be called epic.

"Okay then," Loki said dismissively, she did a double-take on the whole thing.

"Wait, what?" she asked.

Loki sat back down in its chair and said, "I never wanted to fight you, you _were_ the one that started this battle in the first place. I just decided to have a little fun, but I'm done with my game now and I have my eyes set on someone else that's in your little group."

"…What…?" the girl faltered.

"You can leave now," the Box swerved away from Hanabi in its chair, "There are stairs if you keep going down the left side of the hallway, your little group should be on the second floor but we're on the fifth so its not that far away, just stay in the stair case and at some point you're going to find them."

Hanabi was silent for a few seconds as she started heading towards the door, "Who are you after?" she asked before leaving.

"A boy," Loki felt like it had to add more, "A black-haired boy. He supposedly plays baseball. Oh, and another boy too, this one has silver hair, much like yours, you could say that I owe him a favor or two."

"What ever," she waved a hand, "As long as you aren't going to attack the Twelfth, and then I'm alright. You can do what ever you want with those guys who you're talking about, even though I don't know who the silver-haired guy is…"

"Then have a good time here," Loki grinned and waved, "But you should really stay away from the ninth floor."

"Why?"

"Hmm," the Box mused and gave a thoughtful look before saying, "I think she'll get really mad if I tell you."

Hanabi gave it a confused look and shrugged, and then she left through the door.

**~8~**

***GPA stands for Grade Point Average, to put it simply you average all your grades up and that one grade becomes your GPA**

**Please come to Just Another Forum, we're starting our Birthday Fiction Project! soon and it's not too late to join on our next birthday: Lambo-May 28**


	19. Ch 19: Memories of a Base

**Note from the Author: This chapter has no fight scenes in it, thank goodness, and is mostly just everyone talking. But on the flip side, Reborn actually makes an appearance, Poseidon is revived with a shock, Anna escapes, and Hanabi takes her own path! So please read and leave reviews!**

**I also have a request to all my readers, since I'm a very indecisive person, I cannot decide on Hide's weapon! So I have left a poll of different weapons that would fit Hide on my profile, please vote! Hide's life and storyline may depend on it!**

**~8~**

"Loki!" Loki flinched and then swerved its chair around to look at what had yelled its name.

"Raphael!" the Box brightened up and gave a cheery smile towards its fellow Box Weapon, "What are you doing here? If you had come sooner I would have had a nice toy for you to play with!"

Mint-green hair fell on Raphael's almost flawless face; its vivid, bright green eyes were glaring angrily towards the red-haired Box. It had a large green hoodie on that read 'Fruity Delight' in large, rainbow colored letters, and brown shorts that went down to its knees. It charged towards Loki to start scolding it.

"Don't you 'Raphael!' me!" it yelled and grabbed Loki's shirt collar, "What are you doing! Isn't there supposed some girl down here?"

Loki tapped its chin thoughtfully in a mocking manner with its white gloves and said, "Why yes, I believe there _was_. She left just moments ago; you can probably catch her in the staircase if you're fast enough."

"Are you an idiot!" Raphael yelled angrily, the other Box continued its careless smile, "That _girl_ was Gokudera Hayato! She had a 43.857% DNA match with him! That's almost HALF of that man! That guy probably just scrambled his DNA also along with the professor!"

"Is _that_ why there's that girl in Floor 0?" Loki smiled and was amused by Raphael's frustration, it shook its head and said knowingly, "Oh stop, I'm just having fun. I _know_ that girl had at least some resemblance to that guy. I've seen pictures of him around the halls, and she looks exactly like a younger-female version of him. But I know that she isn't him."

"Oh really?" Raphael rolled its green eyes sarcastically, "And what is that?"

"She's not as smart," it leaned back in its chair and continued, "Well, she's clever, but she's far from _smart_. And she hates explosions and loud noises. Even I could see that, the way she handled her cards, the way she talked about her explosives, and the way she used them also. All of it was without pride and full of spite, there was definitely a feeling of hate in the way that girl used her explosives."

The green Box rolled clamped its hand to its face to show annoyance, "Oh _yes_, and the girl couldn't have been acting!"

"Even the best actors will show an underlying fondness for something," it stated.

"So what are you saying then?" asked Raphael, "That the girl who looks like him, uses the same weapon as him, and has the same DNA as him, _isn't_ him?"

"Yes," it nodded cheerily, "You can go after her if you want, but I'm sticking to my point and I'm not going to wait here like I was told."

"You're kidding right?" the Box growled and kept its steady glare, "Are you just going to wait here until who ever had beaten Poseidon comes?"

"Yup," it smiled carelessly at Raphael who in turn yelled something that Loki did not understand and stormed out of the room.

"Hahaha!" Loki's shrill laughter filled the room as it enjoyed itself fully in the laughter.

**~8~**

Hide looked down the staircase eerily as Morita and Suzuki ran down the stairs and slid down the rails which ended at a platform about every five steps. Suzuki noticed that Hide was still standing at the top of the stairs.

"Hey Hide!" the raven-haired boy called, "Hide!"

The blonde snapped out of his day dream and said with a trembling voice, "Y-yes?"

"Geez, Hide!" Suzuki sighed, "You've been spacing out a lot lately, what's up with you?"

"I'm just really nervous," Hide replied and looked around in a place where there was nothing to see, "I-I'm worried about what happened to Gokudera-san, and where Reborn went off to," he suddenly lightened up when he thought of Reborn and said, "Geez! What kind of tutor leaves his student in an abandoned underground base!"

The boys were silent for a moment or two before happily laughing; Hide had somehow relaxed more and was no longer pale and trembling, he still looked nervous, but then again Hide always looked slightly nervous.

"Hey guys, how far do you think these stairs go?" Morita asked as they descended down the staircase.

Suzuki shrugged and said, "Reborn said that there were twenty floors, and the map said that there were twenty floors also. So I'm just guessing here, but these stairs go down to twenty floors."

"Yeah, but what if they just stop at some floor and then you have to find another staircase," Morita asked, "or what if one of the stairs just stops cause it's destroyed or something."

"Morita-kun has a point," said Hide, "Reborn said that this place was old, so it wouldn't be surprising if some parts were gone."

"Well there's no point in worrying about it now," said Suzuki, he smiled sheepishly and put his hands on the back of his head, "We'll just have to wait and see!"  
_Suzuki…you're way too relaxed…_Hide sighed; the baseball bat in his friend's hand caught his attention.

"Suzuki, is that gramps' old practice bat?" he asked.

The boy looked at the blue bat and grinned, "Yup! For some reason he gave it to me before we left. He told me that something surprising would happen if I swung it super fast!" Suzuki swung it and nothing happened, "I've been swinging it as fast as I can but nothing has happened!"

"Maybe you have to swing it a certain way?" Morita suggested.

"Yeah, your left-handed, and gramps is right-handed*!" Hide remembered, "Why don't you try that?"

"You think?" the baseball player looked at his bat and changed hands, he swung it and as a result it flew out of his hands and hit the wall, then the bat ricocheted off of the wall and hit Suzuki in the forehead.

"Suzuki!" Hide yelped as he fell to the ground.

"That was pretty weird, are you alright?" Morita asked as he helped the baseball player up from the ground.

"I…I think I am," he said dizzily, his forehead was slightly purple as a bruise formed, "S…Sorry Hide, but I don't think I'll be using that bat right-handed…"

**~8~**

In a freezing cold room on the ninth floor, a robotic arm came out from the wall and joined others on a large keyboard in front of a computer. The arms' thin metallic fingers typed on the keyboard at what seemed to be a hundred miles per hour and they probably were. One final push of a button and a tile on the wall fell open with a sapphire blue box on it that was gilded with silver and gold, on one side of the box was a regal-looking clam in silver.

A different looking arm appeared, this arm's hand was more like a single metallic finger that was thick and round. The 'finger' ignited itself into a glowing, orange flame in the cold, frigid room. Then the finger fitted itself into a hole on the sapphire box.

The Box opened. A figure that was on fire, the fire was a marvelous blue, flew out of the box like a vacuum blowing dust out. The figure didn't flinch as it was enveloped in the large, blue fire but soon the fire dissipated and formed clothes and hair on the figure.

It had cropped blue hair, the blue was the same color as the fire; the flames turned into a khaki-colored polo shirt that said in mustard-colored wording: The Status is not Quo!*. Its pants were bermuda* denim shorts that had a bizarre design that could have been either flowers or some sort of animal. The Box was also holding onto a dark blue trident.

"_Poseidon…"_ a voice whispered, the blue-haired Box turned towards the computer.

"Yes?" it croaked, it felt like it had been speaking for the first time.

"_Poseidon…you are…fixed…now…_" the voice said, it sounded so very sad.

"Do I go somewhere?" it asked with a blank expression.

"_There…are some…rats…flush…out…"_ the voice commanded.

"Y-yes…" it nodded.

"…_Poseidon?"_

"Yes?"

"_Why…why are you…crying?"_ the voice asked, it sounded confused but to Poseidon it sounded even sadder.

"I don't know," a tear rolled down from its eyes to its cheeks, the room was so cold that as the tears fell to the ground they froze into ice and shattered.

**~8~**

Hanabi decided that she now hated stairs. Especially when they suddenly decided to end. She had gotten up to the fourth floor before meeting a step that decided not to go up any further than it should.

"Dammit!" she yelled and then pulled out the leather deck of cards that she never even got to use, "What the hell am I supposed to do now!" for some reason yelling at the deck made her feel better.

She shoved the deck into her sleeve and, after a few minutes of thought, she decided that if she could not go up then she would just go down. Of course this sort of logic made no sense to anyone other than Hanabi.

**~8~**

"C'mon…" a voice huffed, a large, heavy looking, metal door cracked open unwillingly, "Just a little further…" the door opened wider and a pale girl slid through the crack.

She collapsed onto the ground and rested there on a tiled floor before getting up. Anna started walking on her bare feet, she was only wearing a pair of shorts that were now really muddy, and a slightly torn t-shirt that was either yellow or orange, it was hard to tell because of the dirt and blood stains. Anna was really tired though so she could have cared less what she was wearing, and more about were she was going.

"Is this some kind of facility…?" she wondered aloud as she looked around, she stood on white tiles and concrete walls made the hall she was in.

"I need to find stairs…and probably a change of clothes…" she decided calmly, she then started acting like the whole 'being kidnapped and locked in an underground cave in some weird looking place'-thing never happened.

A map plastered on the wall caught her attention; she stared silently at the giant red dot that was labeled 'You Are Here' before continuing her walk.

"Only idiots would follow such an obvious trap," Anna yawned as she walked.

**~8~**

Hide, Suzuki, and Morita sneezed at the same time and then they all started to think it was cool that they had sneezed at the same time.

**~8~**

His legs sauntered into the kitchen, his black leather shoes moved swiftly almost as if it was dancing and he hopped onto a stool in the kitchen to straighten his tie slightly then he fixed his hat to a good position. He smiled to himself as he examined his reflection in a picture frame on the wall.

"That's good," he said in his squeaky voice, Reborn took one last glance at the picture frame but this time he looked at the picture inside it instead of his reflection. He then looked around the kitchen and commented, "This place still looks like it was never left…"

The mold that was growing in the sink, the dust that covered the counters and the rust along the doors and walls were now imagined as gone. Everything looked so new it was _shining_, and you could even see your reflection off of the counters. This was Reborn's memory from 40 years ago.

A young man with silver-grey hair stumbled into the room carrying a large, heavy looking box in his arms. The man slammed the box onto the table and turned to the door which was still standing open.

"Hurry in here you freak!" he yelled to someone outside.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," another young man with a slight muscular build and spiky black hair came into the room, he carried two large boxes and put them on the table, "Isn't this exciting Gokudera?" he said enthusiastically as he looked around the newly built kitchen, "Tsuna did a good job overseeing the construction of this place!"

"Yeah, yeah," Gokudera waved this off and looked around angrily before calling to another person, "Hey, Assistant!"

"Y-yes?" a small, thin figure came trudging along carrying four even larger boxes, its legs were shaking as it walked to the table and stopped.

"Well?" Gokudera asked impatiently.

"Uh…um, can I have some help…?" a feminine voice asked from behind the boxes.

"Oh alright!" the bomber snatched one of the boxes and Yamamoto helped grab two more and set them on the table.

"Th-thank you Gokudera-sama, Yamamoto-sama," the small girl said, she had large onyx eyes and short black hair, she actually looked more like a boy than a girl especially since she was wearing gym shorts and a large sweater.

"It's no problem Yuuko!" Yamamoto laughed heartily.

"Some assistant you are," Gokudera scoffed, "And where's the Tenth? Aren't you supposed to be with him at all times?"

"R-right!" she nodded and started to hurry out the door but ran into someone.

"Ow, that hurt…" the girl looked up in shock when she heard the voice and quickly apologized to the man she ran into to.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she bowed in forgiveness, "Please forgive me Boss!"

"Don't worry about it, Yuuko-san," Tsuna stood up and brushed himself off.

"Tenth are you okay?" Gokudera asked with sincere concern.

"I said not to worry about it," he sighed.

"Assistant!" the girl named Yuuko flinched when her nickname was called, Gokudera loomed over her angrily, "What are you doing running into the Tenth! Pick that stuff up right now!"

"Y-yes!" she yelped and quickly scrambled for the things that Tsuna had dropped.

"Gokudera, it's alright you don't have to yell at her for everything," the boss ordered, "She's been my assistant for two years; I think she can handle stuff."

"Gaah! Oh no!" Yuuko was holding a light bulb that had smoke coming out of it.

Gokudera growled at the assistant's incompetence and was about to yell at her when he was cut off.

"What a shoddy place," they all turned around and saw a cardboard box turn around and a cut-out of Tsuna's old tutor's face was there.

"Reborn!" Tsuna almost had a heart attack.

"Reborn-san! How did you get in here?" Gokudera asked.

"A certain little girl carried me in," he replied.

"I'm 20 years old; I'm just short is all!" Yuuko claimed, but she _was_ 20 years old and being called a little girl gave her almost every right to be angry.

"Assistant…" Yuuko froze as she felt Gokudera's swelling anger towards her.

"Why the heck are you dressed in camouflage? I gave a key to this place!" Tsuna interrupted his Storm Guardian's angry rant.

"A hitman never uses a key."

"That's insane!"

The young men, assistant, the boxes, and Reborn's camouflage disappeared and all that was left was Reborn who stood where he had been standing on that very day that Tsuna had opened the Vongola base.* The infant jumped off the stool he was on and started to walk out of the old, rusted kitchen.

"Hide should want my help by now," he smirked at the doorway and left the kitchen.

"What the heck is going on!" Hide screamed as he and his friends started sliding down the staircase, which used to have stairs but those had suddenly flattened out on them and were now sending them down the staircase.

**~8~**

***I honestly have no clue if Yamamoto is right-handed or not, so this may not be right**

***hee hee…Dr. Horrible joke…hee hee**

***Bermuda shorts are shorts that cut off right before the knees, they are also really ugly and don't go with any outfit**

***I imagine that Tsuna was probably 22 around the time he built the base, but that's just a guess so it's not true.**

**Note from the Author: KHR belongs to Amano Akira, but Yuuko is my own original character. We're starting to write Lambo's birthday fiction over at my forum, you can join now too! You just have to contribute something that will be used in the story! If you don't come visit Just another Forum Lambo will cry :(!**


	20. Ch 20: Raphael's Whip

**I have a poll up on my profile to decide Hide's new weapon, it has come down to a three-way tie now so please vote! Poll will be closed on the 31st of May!**

**Hide's life and storyline depends on it!**

**~8~**

"What the heck is going on!" Hide screamed as he and his friends slid down the stairs-turned-slide.

They screamed and hollered as they slid down to what could very well be their oncoming doom. And surprisingly enough, in a time of panic and danger, Morita suddenly had a smart idea.

"Hold onto me, guys!" he said, the other two boys looked at each other and then grabbed onto the boxer's legs.

Morita shot out an arm and grabbed the stair's railing, luckily he was wearing the gloves Reborn had given him so his hands didn't scar or hurt as they all slowed to a halt. Suzuki, who had grabbed onto the leg that was closest to the railing, sighed with relief when they had stopped.

"I'm gonna try and grab the rail," he said and then looked over to Hide, "After that, I'll pull you up, okay?"

Hide nodded and once Suzuki grabbed onto the railing, he did as promised and pulled his friend up to the rail also. The boy grabbed the bar quickly and, after a few seconds of panic, wondered how far down they had traveled.

"It's a good thing that I had these gloves on," said Morita as he stood up while still grabbed the bar, "or else we would still be falling!"

"Speaking of which, Morita-kun doesn't your arm hurt?" Hide asked worriedly, "You were just holding onto the rail with one arm and lying down at the same time! That has to be painful!"

"Ah, I've been through worse!" he said light-heartedly.

"That could have dislocated your shoulder!"

"Hide, I've had my arm dislocated before, I think I would know what it would be like if it was on my shoulder," he said it as if it was a fact.

Hide gave up on the argument and said, "Well, if we continue to climb here, maybe we'll find a door or something?"

"Then let's get climbing!" Suzuki said enthusiastically.

So with Morita ahead of them, Suzuki in the middle, and Hide in the back…the _way_ back…the boys began to climb the railing like climbers on a mountain. Hide quickly grew tired from using his arms constantly but his two friends both seemed completely unfazed by the climb. This made Hide contemplate negatively on how little muscle he had compared to his well-built, muscular friends.

"That's why you need to exercise more instead of complaining."

"Yeah I guess…" Hide sighed and then realized who had spoken, "REBORN!"

"Ciaossu," the infant replied from atop of the boy's head, the glowing ball of Leon was resting on his back.

The other two boys looked back at the hitman in surprise, both by the fact that he had managed to come out of no where and also by the fact that he somehow gotten on top of Hide's head without any of them noticing.

"How did you get here little guy?" Morita asked in surprise.

"I found a door and heard you guys screaming," he said.

"Then how come you aren't sliding down like we were!" Hide asked.

"Because only a bunch of idiots would fall for such an obvious trap."

There was an embarrassed, awkward silence until Morita broke it, asking, "So where was this door?"

**~8~**

When they had found the way out, which was a door that led to the eighth floor, Reborn immediately started scolding his student by kicking his shins and slapping him silly.

"What kind of idiot follows such an obvious trap? Idiot-Hide," he said angrily.

"It wasn't _me_ who decided to follow that map!" said Hide, but this only got him slapped some more.

"A real Boss would take responsibility for his subordinates' actions."

"To be fair, you really didn't say anything about following the map Hide," said Suzuki unhelpfully.

"But it _was_ me who decided to follow the map," said Morita, this gave Hide hope that he would share the blame with someone else, but to his dismay the boxer then added, "And you really shouldn't trust me when it comes to making decisions."

"A Boss should take responsibility for his subordinates' idiocy," Reborn stated.

"But I don't _want_ to be a boss!" Hide whined, this did not help his defense much.

"Hey, Reborn, where did you go off to up there?" asked Suzuki, Hide was thankful for this because Reborn had stopped slapping him to talk to Suzuki.

"I went on my own little mission," he said, "And I found some things out, but it doesn't really have anything to do with you guys right now."

"We really could have needed you, ya know?" Suzuki sighed, "We were all lost and everything!"

"Then since I'm here now, we can start moving towards the right direction to where the stairs are," he said.

"Reborn," Hide asked as they started walking and he rubbed his cheeks, he was now keeping a little bit of distance between him and his home tutor. "You said you've been here before, right?"

"Yup," the infant nodded.

"And you said that this place was over 35 years old, right?" he continued.

"That is correct."

"Well, this is just a thing that has been bugging me for a while but," the blonde pointed to a picture frame that was hanging on the wall next to them, "What's up with that?"

The picture frame was cracked and had mold growing inside of it, but despite that the picture inside could still be seen as clear as day. In the picture was a group of people in suits, one of them was a young man with messy brown hair sitting in a regal-looking chair with his hands resting on his lap while the rest of the people were standing around him. But that wasn't what Hide was pointing to. What he was pointing to was in front of the man, at his feet, was a small infant clad in a black suit and fedora and also had strangely familiar sideburns.

"That would be a picture frame," said Reborn flatly.

"That's not what I meant!" Hide pointed more accusingly at the photo, "Why are you in a photo that's almost 40 years old!"

"That _does_ kinda look like him, doesn't it?" said Suzuki as he took the picture frame off the wall to examine it further, "But that should be impossible, right?"

"I know, right?" the blonde nodded and looked over to the tutor, "Reborn, there's something here you're not explaining to us!"

"That is correct," Reborn nodded.

"Don't try to avo-What?" Hide stopped in mid-sentence and blinked.

"That is correct, I am hiding something from you," his tutor said bluntly, "But this really isn't the correct time to be explaining every little thing to you. And I shall explain everything to you all at some point, but not now, not when we are in a dangerous situation."

"What dangerous situation?" he asked, "All that has happened is that Adam got in a fight and Gokudera-san fell through a hole! We're just looking out for a 'Box' and some holes!"

"Speaking of which, you guys haven't found any have you?" Reborn asked.

"No!" he yelled, for some reason the tutor he had once missed was now making him more frustrated than ever.

"Well, count yourselves lucky," he said, "This place should be crawling with Box Weapons."

"I thought you said that there were only God Boxes around," Hide asked suspiciously.

"I never said that," Reborn stated he walked a little further and stopped, "But something has opened the God Boxes, and anything with that much power probably has more than enough to open up more. I have a theory as to what it is, but I'm not exactly sure yet."

"Why is that?" asked Suzuki.

"We're going to have to find another God Box in order to prove it," the infant said, he continued walking ahead of the group.

Hide sighed miserably and followed the infant to wherever he was taking them.

**~8~**

Anna walked along the fifteenth floor, she was somewhat happy at the progress she had made from the traveling five floors up and was now leaning against a wall to rest her feet. She took a deep breathe in and out before continuing on her journey, she continued walking along the fifteenth floor in silence.

The ground was white tile that was dusty, and rusted with mold in the cracks. Luckily, Anna was not germophobic enough to be grossed out by it since she was walking on the tile with her bare feet. Her hair was caked with a mixture of mud and blood, and her arms were scratched up and dirty. This was when Anna greatly wished for a bath, if this had been her brother he probably would have cared less…but then again he also would have still been stupid enough to stay in the cave.

"I should find the way out first," she decided, "Then when I get back to Boss's house, I'll take a nice long bath."

"A bath?" Anna turned around sharply and stared steadily at the figure in front of her.

The figure had a very feminine shape to it, but it also had very narrow eyes that could have belonged to a boy. She had bandages wrapped all around her feet to her legs, and even more around her wrists and forearms, and the bandages could have reached higher but she was wearing a plain-looking blouse that had sleeves that went down to her elbows and was wearing a plain skirt that reached her knees. The stranger also had straw blonde hair that was up in a bun and light brown eyes seemed to shine brightly.

"Yes," Anna nodded, she knew better than to start things off with, 'Where did you come from?' because this person actually _looked_ somewhat normal and didn't seem to want to attack her right then and there.

"Do you need a bath?" the woman asked, the way she asked it was strange, like she was a completely new to the concept of having a bath.

"…That would be nice," Anna nodded again, she was still wary of the woman but it didn't think that she was at all dangerous.

"I think there may be one on the sixth floor, but that's a ways away…" the person said, it sounded like she was trying to be a little helpful but was disappointed that she wasn't doing so.

"So I need to go down again?" Anna asked. To help the reader understand, Anna still has absolutely no clue where she was going or where she was, she actually thought that she was still in some strange facility.

"No," the woman shook her head, "You need to go up, right now you're on the fifteenth floor."

"I see," Anna nodded and shrugged. _Foreign countries sure are confusing when it comes to counting_, she thought.

"I can help you, if you want," the woman said, "It would not be as lonely if you had help."

"No, it's alright," the girl shook her head, "I can get up there on my own as long as I know where I'm going. You wouldn't happen to know where the stairs are, would you?"

"Walk down this hallway," she said helpfully and pointed in a direction, "There should be a sign with a person walking down stairs on it, if it helps. But don't follow the maps, they are right but not when it comes to stairs."

"Thank you," Anna nodded, she wasn't quite sure what this woman meant by that last sentence but nevertheless followed her advice.

"It's no problem," she said and then smiled sadly, "As long as I'm helpful."

The girl looked at her for a few seconds and asked, "What's your name?"

The woman seemed startled but happy when she heard that and said, "Amaterasu!"

"Amaterasu? That's a weird name," Anna remarked and said, "I'm Anna. Do you want to come with me?"

"To a bath?" Amaterasu asked with a baffled look.

"No, do you want to get out of here with me?"

Amaterasu seemed startled by this and said with shock, "Oh, I cannot! There is someone here who needs my help!"

"Is it some guy with sort of purple-bluish hair?" Anna asked warily.

"No," she shook her head, "It is my master, my master would be very lonely if I were to leave."

"Suit yourself then," the girl shrugged and pointed in the same direction Amaterasu had earlier, "This way, right?"

"Yup," she nodded, and then called out to the girl as she left, "I hope that you will not be lonely for long either!"

After Anna was out of sight, Amaterasu went a little limp and said sadly, "I hope I will not be alone soon…"

**~8~**

"Hey Reborn, where exactly are we going?" Hide dared to ask, after following the infant for about an hour without questioning him.

"If I remember correctly, this floor had the control room with all the monitors for the surveillance cameras," he explained.

"_If I remember correctly…"_ there was Reborn again talking as if he had been here before, Hide reflected. The mystery behind his tutor bothered Hide a great deal to the point that it added up to his annoyance to the baby.

"So if we get to this control room we can find Gokudera-san, right?" Hide asked.

"We might find something else as well," the infant's hat was tilted so that they could not see his eyes, but the hat did not hide his smirk as well.

His student raised an eyebrow, but he was already used to Reborn's general weirdness so he just let it pass. And so Hide and his friends unquestioningly followed Reborn towards the control room, but as they walked the rusted and mold-ridden hall that was about as identical to every other hall in the base, an explosion occurred. It seemed like something had busted through the wall of the building and carried onto the next hall.

The explosion was not necessarily an actual explosion though. It was more like the wall fell down, bring years of dust and wall crumbs with it, and then that thing that made the wall fall down brought the next wall down. Once the dust had settled down, Hide saw two figures fighting in the swirl of the smoke and dust.

"I don't wanna fight!" he heard a voice whine.

"Quit your whining!" another voice yelled.

The figure that was whining was holding a blue trident that about to be pulled away by a whip held by the other figure.

"Rain Poseidon and Thunder Raphael," said Reborn almost immediately.

"Those are Box weapons!" Hide yelped.

"Poseidon?" Suzuki questioned, "The Box that _I_ fought? Are you sure?"  
"No doubt about it," Reborn nodded and said, "The trident and blue hair explains everything."

"Really?" the baseball player asked again, "But the Poseidon _I_ remember was a lot more cool looking, and it didn't really talk a whole lot…"

At this point the two Boxes realized that they were being watched, to which pissed Raphael off to no end.

"What the hell are you all staring at?" it yelled angrily.

The boys all looked at the green-haired box as it waved its whip around.

"We're kinda lost, can you help us?" Suzuki boldly asked.

"Suzuki, those are the enemies!" Hide hissed towards his friend.

"I know, but maybe they'll help us," he said and then smiled peacefully.

_What kind of logic is that!_ Hide gaped.

"What are you lot? Intruders?" Raphael questioned, but before any of them could have time to answer Raphael shot a glare towards Poseidon and started yelling at it, "Poseidon!" it flinched, "You were told to get rid of the intruders! What kind of Box is a Box that doesn't listen to its master! Eh? EH!"

"I-I didn't know!" the Box whined as Raphael started pulling at its ear.

"Didn't know! The surveillance room is right over there!" Raphael pointed down the hallway Hide and his friends were travelling down, "You're the one in charge of surveillance on this floor, you no-good Box!"

"Please stop that!" Poseidon pleaded as Raphael pulled on its ear harder, "It'll fall off!"

"We are the most technologically advanced things here! It won't fall off that easily!" to prove it, the Box pulled on the ear harder.

"Please stop!"

It took a few minutes for the Box Weapons to quit bickering, but when they were finished they seemed like they had somehow reached a conclusion to work together.

"I'm really sorry, but I'll have to fight you," Poseidon said apologetically.

"Finally! I've been bored out of my mind waiting to fight someone!" Raphael exclaimed and snapped its whip.

"Cool, my first actual fight!" Morita smirked to himself.

"It may not be the _same_ Poseidon I fought, but this guy will be good enough," said Suzuki as he hefted his bat.

_Why do I feel like this is just some setup to a videogame…?_ Hide questioned himself and noticed Reborn eating popcorn out of a popcorn bag that had come out of no where.

"Want some?" the infant asked while holding up the bag.

"No!"

**~8~**

**Note from the Author: Haha, just realized that I have been putting these chapters out on really random days, I didn't really think that I would have it written out by now but surprises are everywhere, apparently. So check out Hide's Poll which is on my profile, I am also taking requests as to what Hide's weapon should be so any thing is welcomed ;)**

**Also, check out Just Another Forum and my own comments on my story, trust me they are much more critical than they should be, and also join my project Birthday Fiction Project! our next birthday-boy is Lambo, so anyone that wishes to join just post up an add-on to the story that is already up there!**

**That's all, and: KHR belongs to Akira Amano**


	21. Ch 21: Loki vs Suzuki

**Note from the Author:Hide's Weapon is now a two-way tie! :O Between the Bo staff and the Boots, it'll be interesting for me to write those into the story line ;) But you can still vote! Polls close May 31st so you should all totally vote now!**

**And as always, read and review :)**

**~8~**

"For some reason my stomach suddenly hurts," Hide muttered to himself.

"That's the feeling of pride from watching your subordinates fight," said Reborn wisely.

"No, I think it's the feeling of guilt from watching your friends fight for no apparent reason," he said weakly.

At the moment, Hide's friends were currently fighting against a Box Weapon that was really angry and a Box Weapon that was really scared. The vast difference between the two personalities was one thing, but it was a little weird how they both could suddenly get along and then not. And Hide, himself, was not very comfortable with the idea of just standing around and watching his friends fight, but Reborn had said that there was only one Dying Will Bullet left and that meant he could only do something when it was really needed.

"Let's win this, right Sakuraba?" said Suzuki as he readied his bat to swing at any moment.

"Yeah!" the boxer nodded, he flexed his gloves and spikes formed on his knuckles.

"Aren't we getting cocky now?" Raphael frowned, "Poseidon, take the brown-haired human, I'll take the black-haired human."

"R-right Raphael," Poseidon trembled.

Suzuki frowned and said, "Wait a minute, I want to fight you! I want a rematch after you beat me in front of the restaurant!"

Poseidon squinted its sapphire eyes at Suzuki, it hesitated a moment before asking uncertainly, "Who are you again?"

"Suzuki, are you sure this is the same guy?" Hide asked, "Did gramps make a mistake?"

"No," he shook his head, "that's definitely Poseidon, you look a little different but you're still the same. I don't forget faces easily."

"Raphael, I think this guy wants to fight me really badly," said the blue-Box, the green-Box pointed its whip towards the other threateningly and said:

"Don't make me whip you."

"But-but-" the Box began.

"Will you shut up? This is all the humans' fault!" it yelled, tightening its grip on its whip, "The humans abandoned us! They are the worse things ever!"

"But the humans opened you," a voice piped in, they all looked at Reborn who was popping pieces of popcorn into his mouth, he swallowed his latest piece and continued, "Humans built you, made you, opened you. They put their whole hearts into getting just one of you to open. Humans put their emotions into you as well," the infant pointed at Raphael and said, "Anger," he moved his finger to Poseidon, "Fear," then he pointed past them, towards where a red-haired figure was standing, "And Insanity."

Hide's eyes widened when he saw the other Box, it stood at the end of the hall about twenty meters away from them with its arms crossed. The young boss was filled with shock and horror when he saw the Box; it almost made him fall to his knees.

"Storm Loki," Reborn stated.

_Oh no…_dreadful thoughts ran through Hide's head, he could feel himself trembling and he remembered the amount of power the Box, Nyx, had shown with only a swoop of one hand, _this could be the worst possible situation that could happen…_

"Loki!" Raphael roared angrily towards the red-Box, "You should be in the Storm Room!" Loki smiled its white smile, "How could I wait in a small, dark room when the target _I'm_ aiming for has shown itself already."

"Hey, I already called him as my opponent!" the green-Box yelled.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Loki waved a finger in the air, "Now, now little Raphael, you already knew I wanted my vengeance on this…boy."

"Oh really!" it scoffed and waved a hand in their direction, "And what will you do about this!"

The Storm Box smiled and said, "I'll do what ever I want."

The red beads Loki had dropped out of its pocket and rolled onto the ground had gone unnoticed up until the point where they exploded.

**~8~**

Anna looked up when she felt the ground shake. She stayed still on the stairs for a moment and waited for some crumbs of the building to fall down.

"Something lively must be happening," she spoke, and then she continued on her way up.

**~8~**

Hanabi swung the door open from the stairs and saw nothing. She glanced around quickly and shut the door loudly to run up the stairs. The feelings of overwhelming worry over her beloved Twelfth were starting to get to her. And when she had heard the explosion that had occurred, her 'Gokudera-senses' tingled and made her want to run immediately to where Hide was. However, the factor of Hide's unknown location just made her frustrated.

She ran back up the stairs to where the source of the explosion might have occurred and swung open the door along the staircase.

"Twelfth?" she said with a hopeful look on her face, she met with a large gust of air and dust.

The floor she had entered was covered in a fog of dust and plaster crumbs that were floating in the air. Nevertheless, she trudged into the level of the base as she was absolutely sure that the explosion had occurred here.

"Twelfth!" she called out while coughing out the dust in the air.

"Hanabi-san?" she turned around sharply and met face to face with Suzuki, who had a baffled look on his face.

"Oh great, it's you," Hanabi rolled her eyes and clasped a hand to her face.

"Wait, Hanabi-san-!" he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way just before a long black coil whipped through the air.

"Get your hands off me!" the bomber yelled and pulled her arm out from Suzuki's grip, "Now, what the hell was that?"

"It's those Cube-thingies that Reborn told us about," he began before Hanabi corrected him.

"You mean Box?"

"Yeah those," the raven-haired boy nodded enthusiastically, "Well, we sort of found two of them, and then this other Box came. Oh, and right now we're kinda in battle with them."

Hanabi stared at the baseball player with an 'Are you serious?' look and sighed tiredly, "Geez, I had already got done with a fight with another Box who didn't even _want_ to fight, and now I'm getting caught up in a fight against three Boxes."

"Well, Sakuraba is here too," said Suzuki helpfully.

"Oh yeah, the giant," she said, "I'll fight, but don't expect me to look out for you or anything, my plans are to protect the Twelfth and not anyone else."

The raven-haired boy stared at her for a few seconds and smiled, "That's fine by me. Hide needs someone to look after him."

He turned away from Hanabi and swung his baseball bat. There was the sound of a satisfying thud as the bat met with something hidden in the fog of dust. A silhouette stumbled back and a trident was thrust forward at them by something else. Hanabi immediately recognized it and grabbed the stick part of the trident.

"Oh no you don't, you Poseidon-bastard, this is payback for beating me earlier!" she growled and ran into the fog.

Suzuki swung his back again to hit the silhouette more, and as he moved in closer he saw the silhouette much more clearer. It was the red-Box, Loki, and despite the repeated number of hits to the face with a metal bat, was still staring straight at Suzuki with a bright smile on its face.

"You're practically mocking me with this strength," it said and grabbed Suzuki's bat right when the boy swung it again, "I cannot even believe that Poseidon found this troublesome."

"Well, I haven't been able to get the surprise out of this bat yet," the baseball player said playfully, "Maybe if you give me a bit of time…"

Loki showed its teeth and said, "You don't even know how to go past your own limits, boy."

In one swift move, Loki let go of the bat and was grabbed Suzuki's arm, it twirled around to the back of him and Suzuki had found himself with his arm behind his back. Excruciating pain went up his arm and he yelled out.

"That's right; you're a baseball player aren't you?" Loki's voice whispered into his ear, "It would be a shame, wouldn't it? If your arm broke?"

Suzuki's eyes widened as his arm was twisted more. He screamed and remembered the bat in his other arm, which he shoved one end towards Loki but it seemed that the Box had simply avoided it.

"You won't get me with some juvenile tricks," it said, "Let me tell you something boy, there _is_ a surprise in that bat, but you won't be able to get it unless you surpass your limits."

He tried to hit Loki again but missed. Of course Suzuki knew of a way to get rid of this grip, but that would end up dislocating his arm if he did it incorrectly. And even though his arm could always heal right up, his chances of helping the baseball team into the finals would be shot.

"How selfish," he heard Loki mock, "You care more about your baseball and your arm than your friends. You are the perfect example of a Human. They lie, cheat, and hate if it means that it will benefit them only, and what's worse about them is that they are perfect at it."

Suzuki felt himself pale and go hollow; he realized that this guy who was only worrying about his arm was not him. The arm held up behind him was his save, but also his to sacrifice.

"No," he found himself speaking, "Maybe I'll lie, and cheat, and hate. But I won't do it for my own benefit; I'll do it for my friends."

He swung his body around, causing Loki to go with him, and his arm was now free. Suzuki took his newly freed arm and grabbed with both hands on the bat as he swung it. Steam came off the bat and revealed a katana sword with a blue and silver hilt. Suzuki looked at the new sword in his hands with shock.

"A-A sword?" his sweat dropped, "Is _this_ supposed to be the surprise?"

"Oh, that _is_ a surprise!" said Loki with almost pure glee.

"Wow, toys these days sure are realistic…" Suzuki spoke as he examined the sword.

"Well since you have your weapon out, I'll just take mine out also," the Storm Box grinned and took out a handful of red beads. It threw the beads towards him and the beads exploded.

"Hahahah!" a shrill laughter was let out, "Aw man, this sure does bring back memories! Not that I have any real ones that is! Hahahah!"

_Is this guy insane?_ Suzuki asked himself as he dodged the beads. An idea which was also extremely risky occurred in his head, he shifted his sword into a baseball stance.

"Kahahahah! I swear your just here to make me laugh!" Loki cracked up and hefted more beads in its hands, "Let me guess, you're thinking of slicing these beads in half with that sword like a baseball with a bat? That's clever, I'll give you that, but that's rather risky considering you don't know if they'll explode or not on impact!"  
"I know," Suzuki nodded, his grip tightened on the sword's hilt, "I'd rather try than do nothing."

"Then let's do an experiment shall we?" Loki grinned and threw its beads at the boy.

He stared down the red beads and swung his sword right at the beads.

**~8~**

At least one floor below the fight, Morpheus walked down the halls with its hands in its pockets. It smiled peacefully and looked up when it noticed another fellow Box wandering around the hall.

"Oh? Amaterasu, what are you so happy about?" Morpheus asked.

Amaterasu brightened when she saw the other Box and said, "Morpheus, I just helped Human! And that Human thought I was Human also!"

"Really?" it nodded and said, "Well you don't really look like any of the other God Boxes, so that must be why. Can you tell me what this Human looked like?"

"It was a girl, I think," Amaterasu explained eagerly, "And she had short blonde hair, like mine only real hair! And she had blue eyes, like Poseidon! And, and she had red liquid stuff on her skin."

Morpheus nodded as Amaterasu described the girl and patiently waited for her to end before saying, "That sounds exactly like the girl we had in the prison."

"Oh no," Amaterasu immediately saddened and said, "I gave her directions out of here…I…I was only trying to help…and I was so lonely too…"

"It is alright," Morpheus nodded and patted Amaterasu on the head, "I will not tell the master. After all, I did leave you alone for a long time and you cannot help that you were lonely."

"Really?" she asked with a hopeful look.

"Yes," it nodded and looked up, "But it's alright, I have stopped being angry at that child. It is painful enough when a grown man has turned himself into young girl; it damages both the man's pride and health. Plus, what can that person do now? We are almost complete with our plans; all that is left is a few more hours of preparation."

Amaterasu nodded and asked after a few minutes of hesitation, "Hey Morpheus, you remember what happened before, right? Before we started having a consciousness?"

Morpheus gave the other Box a surprised look and said, "What's with this? You don't normally ask these sorts of things."

"I've just been feeling a lot lonelier recently;" she said quickly, "I wonder if that's in response to our master's feelings."

The other Box rubbed its chin and said wisely, "Yes, that could possibly be it…anyways, what do you wish to know, Amaterasu?"

"I want to know what my other master was like," she said eagerly, "I already know what our current master is like, but I want to know what the person who first opened my Box was like."

"Hmm, I see," Morpheus nodded and said, "Well, shall I tell you a little story about your old owner?"

Amaterasu nodded eagerly and awaited the story.

"It was…" it hesitated for a moment before continuing, "a long time ago…"

**~8~**

_Forty years ago…_

"Yo Sawada-I mean Boss!" a young man with silver-grey hair waved to Tsuna upon entering the training room of the Underground Base.

"Geez, Onii-san, you really don't have to call me Boss," Tsuna sighed in response.

"Well if I don't, that Octopus-head will yell at me, and most likely that poor assistant of yours," he said and pointed to Yuuko who was frantically scribbling things onto the electronic planner in her hand.

"H-Hold on, Boss, you have an appointment with a, um, Professor who says that he's made a new Box Weapon," she said nervously as she read off the planner.

"There's been a lot of those recently though," said Tsuna passively, "scientists seem to think that they can just put what ever they want into a Box and call it a Box Weapon."

"But sir, this one is Daniel Grandhart, you told me to make an appointment with him myself!" she said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," he said.

Ryohei whistled and said, "You're meeting with that guy, Sawada? He's practically a genius for inventing the God Boxes."

"And he's young too, which is exactly why I want to meet with him," Tsuna sighed and asked his assistant, "So where exactly is this appointment happening?"

"Um, I actually scheduled it here, since he insisted that he show you a demo of a Box he made," said Yuuko, she rushed over to the entrance of the training room and said, "I'll be right back with him sir!"

Before Tsuna could say anything, the girl had left and leaving the Tenth Boss of Vongola with his Sun Guardian.

"That assistant of yours sure is motivated about these things," said Ryohei with an impressed look on his face.

"That's only because she gets yelled at by Gokudera-kun a lot," Tsuna said miserably.

"Even so, you have to admit," said the boxer wisely, "that she is pretty sharp for a twenty-year old. If she had been assigned to the Science Division, she would have been working directly under Verde."

"Boss," the door of the training room opened, Yuuko stuck her head out of the door and said, "Daniel Grandhart is here to see you."

Tsuna nodded and permitted entrance, "Let him in."

"Right," she nodded back and ushered a man that was even younger than Tsuna.

This man wore a lab coat and glasses over clear blue eyes. He had wavy blonde hair that was just past his ears and you looked at him in a certain light, he could have been called handsome but his blue eyes darted left to right constantly and he looked extremely nervous like he was holding a bomb under that lab coat of his.

"Mr. Grandhart I presume?" Tsuna gave him a kind smile.

"Y-Yes," Daniel nodded nervously.

"I have heard about your work with those new Boxes you have been making," the Boss continued in his kind voice, it freaked Daniel out a little bit mainly because instinct told that if your boss started talking to you in a super nice voice then that means you're in trouble.

"I-Is that so?" he said weakly, _I'm only 18, please just let me go!_ he whimpered to himself.

"I am interested on how you came up with this idea," Tsuna continued, "Not even Geppetto* was able to come up with that."

"Y-You are talking about the God Boxes c-correct?" Daniel trembled, Tsuna nodded, "Well…I don't really know how it all happened but, um, I was just in my lab one day and there was a Box on my desk. As a student of Mr. Verde, he assigns us to dissemble and reassemble Box Weapons as an exercise, and sometimes we, the other students that is, will try to give the Boxes a sort of upgrade at the same time. And, well, I was just doing my exercises, as usual, when this idea just entered my head…'what if I did it like this?' I thought…and that was how the God Boxes came around."

Tsuna listened to the whole story patiently and with a solid look on his face. Once it was finished, he nodded as if he sincerely understood the other's situation and asked the man:

"How old are you, Daniel?"

"What? Um, 18?" he gave his Boss a curious look.

"That _is_ young," Tsuna said morbidly and then asked in a different tone, "And how did you start working for the Vongola, Daniel?"

"W-Well, it's a long story, but my family sort of favored my sister, Alyssa, more than me," he said nervously, "And then I didn't really like how things were going on at home, so I decided to just become a scientist and then Mr. Verde found me."

"Oh yes, you were once apart of the main branch for the Grandhart Family," Tsuna remembered thoughtfully and then shook his head, "It's a shame that they didn't give you a higher position within that Family, but then again I guess it is lucky for us that we have you."

"Its not particularly something I want to delve into, sir," Daniel sighed.

Tsuna shrugged and said, "Very well, on other news, I have heard from my assistant that you have a God Box you wanted to show me?"

"Ah! Oh yes!" the man suddenly remembered the thing in his lab coat, he fumbled for it and took out a small orange box with a hole in it, "This is a Sky Box, sir, I have others made, but they seem to use up a lot of power and I thought 'Who else could open this than the Boss of Vongola himself?'"

Yuuko watched with anticipation at what Tsuna's reaction would be to this, but the man just sighed his tired sigh and took the Box from him. The Vongola Ring on his finger was lit with a beautiful orange flame that Yuuko admired greatly. The Ring was fitted into the God Box and the Box released a large amount of light.

"What…" Ryohei's mouth hung open and he said shakily, "I have seen God Boxes before, but this one…this one is…"

"It's real," said Tsuna grimly.

A large flaming figure stood before them, as the flames dissipated around it the features of the Box became more prevalent. It had long orange hair and glowing orange eyes, it also had ghostly pale skin as if it was made out of marble. An orange flame rested on its forehead and on its hands. There was a lost look in its eyes and it was standing extremely still, almost like a statue.

"I don't like it," Tsuna said almost immediately.

"Y-You don't?" Daniel gulped, "Why not?"

"They're too realistic, and they look exactly like real people," he said, "If those get out to the public, there will be too much of an out roar and that's when we'll be in big trouble. I'm sorry Mr. Daniel, but I'm going to have to ask you to halt your operations on the God Boxes."

The scientist looked taken aback by this but quickly recovered by nodding quietly, "I understand if you don't like the God Boxes, Boss. I was also a little afraid of them at first."

"I'm not afraid," Tsuna spoke; he quickly corrected himself after a moment of reflection and said, "No, I _am_ afraid. I'm afraid of the potential these things could have if they were released into the public. Anyone powerful enough to open one of these is dangerous."

Daniel marveled at the Boss for a few seconds and said understandingly, "Then I will stop, it disappoints me that these Boxes will never come to their full use. But I don't want these to go to anyone but the Vongola."

"Then you understand, thank goodness," Tsuna said with relief, he looked over to his assistant and nodded towards her, "Yuuko, please escort Mr. Grandhart out of here please."

"Yessir," she nodded and looked over to the scientist, "Grandhart-san, please follow me."

"Right," he said and quickly followed her out.

"Wow, Sawada you must extremely like the Vongola," Ryohei whistled impressively.

"No, I hate the Vongola, and anything involved in the Mafia," Sawada Tsunayoshi said flatly, "It's the people in the Vongola that I don't hate. Onii-san, you understand right? The Vongola is the only way I can protect all my loved ones."

"I know, but you have some extreme dedication, Sawada," Sasagawa Ryohei grinned to himself.

**~8~**

"…And that's the end," Morpheus finished.

Amaterasu's brow furrowed as she reflected on this and said, "But, I'm a Sun Box. That didn't really tell me anything about my old master."

"I know," the other Box nodded, "but this story was just more interesting! Don't you think?"

"That doesn't really help me Morpheus," she sighed, "Next time could you tell me a story that involves my master more?"

"Hmm, okay then," it nodded and then said brightly, "Oh yeah, maybe if you go down to the library you'll find some stuff about your old owner."

"That's right!" she brightened and started to run off to the library but stopped hesitantly, she turned back to Morpheus sheepishly and said, "C-Could you come with me, Morpheus?"

The Box then sighed and said, "You sure are clingy, Amaterasu. C'mon." then they went off to the library. The base shook as they walked because of the fight going on above.

**~8~**

**Haaah, this chapter has got to be my longest chapter so far.** **I'm getting dangerously close to the climax now. If you all want to talk to me about this chapter, or past chapters, visitJust Another Forum! I'm also writing a Birthday-fic for Lambo, and I'm looking for people to help me write it! So go onto my forum and visit the topic headed as 'Birthday Fiction Project!' Lambo's birthday is on the 28th and hastily approaching…**

**Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Amano Akira**


	22. Ch 22: Lots and lots of dust

**I was planning on getting this out on the 6th, but it's now a week later. I blame the computer.**

**In this chapter of Skywards, Morita's vs Raphael! Hanabi vs Poseidon! A large library! Great things!**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter, and as always, read and review :)**

**~8~**

Morita coughed as he fought his way through the smoke in the air. Every now and then, the boxer would hear the sounds of minor explosions that were possibly the reason why there was still smoke and dust in the air, and he would also feel something or someone bumping into him every now and then. A long black coil surprised him as it erupted from the smoke.

"Whoa!" he jumped out of the way, mint-green colored hair appeared in Morita's vision and he saw Raphael staring straight at him.

"What's this? I'm stuck with the boxer of the group?" it scoffed while holding its black whip in both hands, "This will be a bore."

Morita moved out of the way quickly as the whip suddenly threw itself over to him, it didn't even seem like Raphael moved at all as the whip cracked through the air like lightening. But Morita had no time to rest as the whip danced around more and more threateningly.

"Hey now!" Morita yelped, "Can't we just talk about this!"

"Wait are you? Chicken!" Raphael growled, the whip cracked more and more.

"I'm not chicken!" the boxer argued, "I just-"

"Just what? Afraid you might get hurt?" the Box taunted.

"No! I'm-"

"Afraid of what my next move will be?"

"No-"

"Peh!" Raphael spat and growled, "Humans are all alike, they can't even finish their own sentences!"

A red, fingerless glove grasped the whip, making it stop, and Morita's arm twinged as he felt a shock run up his arm.

"You shouldn't touch it," the Box spoke in a remarkably, and surprising, calm tone, "Right now ten thousand volts of electricity is running throughout your body and-"

"I don't care," Raphael stopped and gave the boy a curious look, Morita's brown hair stood on end and his arm that was holding the whip began to bulge with his muscles; he looked up at Raphael with his glowering brown-eyed gaze and said, "Just don't interrupt me again."

**~8~**

Meanwhile, back at the Namimori Hospital where Hide's mother was waiting with Tanaka Megumi, who had arrived a little while ago once she had heard about what happened with the Boxing Team. Both females wore worried looks on their faces, and they each complained about the boys who had suddenly disappeared without saying a word to them about it.

"Oh my, of all the selfish things that boy could possibly do!" Hide's mother sighed frustratingly.

"Where could Morita be! He was just hospitalized!" Megumi checked her phone frantically over and over again for a text or call from Morita.

"Those boys just taking off without saying a word!" the mom growled, "Making his mother and a girl worry! Oh my, I just don't know how that child came out this way!"

"I totally understand!" she nodded and said, "I've known Morita since we were kids! He _always_ does this to me! Leaves me out of the loop while he does his 'boy activities', which is generally something dangerous, I bet! Ugh! And he wonders why I worry!"

"Oh, I'm sure that Sakuraba-boy will be alright! He looks like a fine, sturdy boy."

"Don't worry, he is," Megumi said grudgingly with her arms crossed, "It's just that he doesn't like fighting, that's why he's in the Boxing Club; any problem that needs to be resolved could be resolved in the ring!"

"Well at least he has an extra curricular activity," Hide's mother sighed as she remembered her son's inability to do any physical activity without being ridiculed by a majority of the population, a trait inherited by his father.

"Well..." the girl stopped and hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Morita _does_ have a bit of a temper...especially when he's interrupted."

**~8~**

"As I was saying," Morita took off the scarred gloves and revealed his blistered hands as he spoke, "I don't like fighting, because I just don't like hurting people. I would at least like to know the _reason_ why you started fighting me."

He waved his blistered hands in the air and started walking through the smoke and over the crackling whip lying on the ground, motionless.

"I especially don't _like _it when people interrupt me," he said as he walked and then stopped in front of a hand that was lying on the ground, the handle of the whip was only an inch or two away from it, "It's really rude, you know? And it says that the person isn't listening to you at all, people _always_ do that to me."

The hand twitched but Morita swiftly stepped on it and walked over the body on the ground, he looked back at it and sighed with discontent, "I _really _don't like hurting people."

**~8~**

Hanabi spun around on one foot and threw her card at Poseidon, causing the card to explode on contact. Poseidon didn't seem affected by the explosion and swung its trident clumsily in her direction. The bomber dodged the trident with ease and gave Poseidon a confused look as it proceeded to try and make a jab at her with the pronged-weapon.

"Are you making _fun_ of me?" she asked angrily when she dodged this attempt as well, "Your strength is nothing like it was back then."

"I-I'm not, I promise!" the Box Weapon quickly said and gave Hanabi a weak stare, "It's just that my stomach gets ill when ever I see blood."

Hanabi then remembered that there was dried blood on her shirt from when she ran into a wall but also remembered that she was plenty bloodied up when she had last met Poseidon. "Didn't you beat me up last time though?" she pointed out.

"I did?" the Box gave her a shocked look before quickly saying, "I'm sorry but I don't remember."

The statement echoed indefinitely in Hanabi's mind until it finally hit something in her head to resonate itself again. Her eyebrow twitched. Her eyes narrowed. The deck of cards in her hand was gripped tighter.

"Are you calling me weak!" she yelled angrily, her facial features were livid with rage.

"N-No!" Poseidon took a step back and wailed, "W-what I meant was-I mean-I-I just _changed_!"

A card was thrown at it like a dagger and then exploded; the Box survived the explosion and held its trident in both hands weakly. Hanabi threw more cards at it furiously but Poseidon kept on avoiding the cards perfectly, though narrowly, and was acting more frantic about it. Soon Poseidon was lost in the smoke and could not see a thing, but if it looked up Poseidon could see the ceiling of the Base...and then it saw sticks of dynamite, of course it tried to run out of the way but some how, when the bombs exploded, the explosion felt a whole lot closer than the dynamite made it seem...

The floor collapsed. Poseidon fell through. And the smoke finally cleared.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" a voice faded as it screamed from below.

Hanabi peered down the hole and glared upwards when she heard the squeaking of a pair of rain boots. They smelled like fish.

**~8~**

There were many books. It was what a library was for, to hold a lot of books. But this library was slightly different, it was wall to wall with shelves that were as tall as sky scrapers and were crammed with thick books. The library was surprisingly the only thing in the underground base that didn't have rust or cobwebs all over the place. The books here were meant to be safe, they were valuable, no, _priceless_, and were filled with texts of the Vongola's long, _long_ history. There were a few tables on the ground level of the library that were there for if you wanted to read at a table and not on the large shelves or a step ladder.

"...and that's the Sun Guardian, and _all _the past Sun Guardians of the Vongola," Morpheus slammed a book shut with satisfaction and started to stand up when it noticed Amaterasu was fidgeting nervously. It sat back down and asked sweetly, "Yes, Amaterasu?"

The other Box looked shocked and stammered, "Uh, yes Morpheus?"

"Do you have something you want to say?"

"No, no!" she shook her head and asked, "Why?"

"Because you look like you do," it stated.

"Well..." Amaterasu looked off to the side like there was something interesting to look at, and she said in a confused tone, "I...I'm just surprised."

"You are?" the Mist Box now gave a look of surprise and said, "not lonely or anything?"

"Oh no!" she shook her head and quickly said, "I do feel lonely still! I'm so lonely it almost hurts! But...I sort of thought that the stories would help me feel a little less lonely..."

"You _thought_, huh?" Morpheus sounded unimpressed and shrugged, "And how long have you been..._thinking_?"

"Uh, was I not supposed to, Morpheus?"

"Maybe your broken?" the Mist Box suggested, "That's not a good thing, you should go up to the repair room."

Amaterasu looked like she was at great discomfort from hearing this, and said, "I think I'm feeling much better now, I'm not surprised nor am I thinking."

"You just said 'I think', and what's wrong with the repair room? It's a perfectly fine place."

"But...we always turn out..._different _when we go to the repair room," she said, "And we have to go back in our Boxes, and those make things dark..."

The base shook gently and both God Boxes looked up in unison. A fumbling noise like a brick falling through several planks of wood was becoming louder and the ceiling of the library fell in as a blue-haired body dropped down.

"Poseidon?" Morpheus questioned, Poseidon's body was faced downwards on a pile of books but its head was staring at the hole it made in the ceiling.

"Poseidon, your head is on backwards," Amaterasu pointed out and then added in a nonsensical way, "I saw a girl, Poseidon, who had eyes that were like yours."

"It won't answer back, Poseidon is unconscious," said the Mist Box after it checked the Rain Box.

"What happened? We're normally very careful when it comes to the weak floors," the other Box said in wonder.

Morpheus looked up and said, "Let's go up."

Amaterasu brightened and asked hopefully, "To see master?"

"To see master."

**~8~**

The smoke worried Hide a great deal. He couldn't see where he was going at all in the dust fog and he heard worrying noises like explosions, yelling, and generic fighting noises. But then they were all silent, which made Hide's heart drop, and then there was a clicking noise and a soft '_whiiiir_'-sound. The smoke was blown away and he saw that Reborn was right behind him with an electric fan that whirred gently. Hide didn't question where he had gotten a fan or where exactly he plugged it in, but instead he got to his feet and gave Reborn a grateful smile.

"Twelfth, you're alright!" he turned and saw Hanabi who looked miraculously fine, even if her shirt _was_ covered in blood.

"Gokudera-san!" the boy brightened, he had never been so glad to see a bomber-hitman in all his life.

"Oh, everyone's alive," said Morita with pleasant surprise, he looked around again and said triumphantly, "And the bad guys are defeated!"

"Morita-kun! Suzuki!" Hide ran over to the boys and said, "You're all alive!"

"I just said that, Hide," the boxer pointed out.

"Thank goodness!" he said with relief.

"No time to rest now though," said Suzuki who was probably drunk off of adrenaline by now, a sword gleamed in his hands.

"S-Suzuki," Hide backed away and pointed shakily at the sword, "W-where did you get that, uh, sword?"

"Oh this?" he said as if it was nothing, "Your gramps gave it to me! Remember that baseball bat? Turns out that this is the trick behind it! Hah!"

_Why is he so calm about it!_ Hide groaned in his mind.

"Don't worry though, I used the back side to fight," he said triumphantly.

_That's not what I was worried about..._

"Suzuki's right, Hide," said Reborn wisely, "There's no time to start relaxing; the real fight is only just beginning. We need to go to the control room and figure out how many Box Weapons are around here."

"I was afraid that you were going to say that," Hide wailed and pointed down the hall way, or what was left of it, "here right?"

Reborn nodded and they began walking, they reached a door with a title over it that read: **'Control Room'** in cold, unfriendly letters. Hide gulped at the sign, he could feel that everyone was staring at his back intently and were all waiting for _him_ to open the door. His hands went cold and a thought arose in his head: _I could leave right now...just turn away and run..._but a warm, friendly hand then rested on his shoulder and Suzuki was behind him, smiling brightly, Morita stood next to him with an eager expression, and Hanabi had a look of confidence on her face.

"Everything will turn out alright in the end," said Reborn, and Hide didn't know why at the moment but the words were strangely comforting and helped him open the door.

"Oh good, we aren't late!"

Hide woke up.

**~8~**

**Gasp! The suspense!**


	23. Ch 23: Morpheus' Blanket

**KHR belongs to Amano Akira**

**~8~**

Hide woke up. He was in his bed, in his room, and in his house. He jumped out of the bed and ran over to his window where he pulled open the curtains and heard birds singing softly in the morning sun.

"I'm..." he gulped, "home?"

He looked around his room and ran towards the mirror. It showed a blond-haired, spiky headed boy with wide caramel eyes and dressed in blue and white striped pajamas. This was Hide.

"Was it all a dream...?" he found himself asking, a thought occurred in his head and he searched under his bed. All that was there were a few hidden magazines and a toy ball that he had received from his grandfather when he was younger.

"Hide-kun! Breakfast is ready!" Hide heard his mother call to him from downstairs.

"Uh, okay mom!" he replied back and looked around his room doubtfully, unsure what to think now.

He got dressed in a t-shirt and jeans then went downstairs where his mother facing the sink to wash dishes. There two chairs at the dining table. A plate of pancakes awaited him on the table; they were so fresh that the aroma floated throughout the whole house. Hide sat down at the table cautiously and looked both ways before grabbing the plate protectively.

"What are you doing?" his mother gave him a strange look.

"Uh..." Hide realized what he did and said unsurely, "Making sure no one steals my food?"

"Why?"

He blinked and shrugged, "I-I don't know?"

"Well, do you want eggs to guard as well?" she asked, a plateful of scrambled eggs was in her hands.

"Sure," he nodded as the plate was set next to him; Hide stared at his pancakes thoughtfully and took a bite.

**_Don't eat the food! Spit it out!_**

He spat the pancakes out and looked up to see that his mother looked shocked.

"Why did you do _that_!" she asked.

"I don't know!" he yelped and then said weakly, "I don't think I...feel well..."

"_Oh dear_," she rushed over to him and put a hand on his head, "You aren't sick are you?"

The doorbell rang, "Come in!" his mother called, Hanabi, Suzuki, and Morita entered the kitchen.

"I was just in the neighborhood," said Hanabi cheerfully and then jerked her thumb with a disgusted look on her face and grumbled, "When _these_ idiots followed me..."

"Hey Hide!"

"'Sup!"

"I brought watermelon," she resumed brightly, and then shot a cold glare at Suzuki and Morita, "But you guys can't have any!"

"Okay," Suzuki shrugged and swung an arm around Hide, "Hide, wanna play cards today?"

"Don't steal all of the attention, baseball-freak!" Hanabi barked.

"I'll leave you kid's alone then," said Hide's mother as she left to go off and do house chores.

"C'mon Hide, let's have some of the watermelon Hanabi-san bought!" urged Morita cheerfully.

"Shut up! You guys can't have any!" Hanabi then turned back to Hide and said with a sweet smile on her face, "Do you want some watermelon, Hide?"

Hide gave her a bizarre look, as he did when ever Hanabi acted strangely, and glanced down at the watermelon. It was very tempting...

**_Don't touch it!_**

"Who said that?" Hide asked and looked around the room.

"Said what?" all three asked in unison.

"Someone just said 'Don't touch it!'" he said and then shook his head doubtfully, "Probably just my imagination..." he then noticed something and asked, "Oh yeah, have any of you guys seen Adam?"

All three had a questioning look on their faces.

"Whose Adam?" asked Suzuki.

"Is he a friend of yours, Hide?" asked Morita, Hide raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Adam," he said slowly in case saying the name would jog their memories, "Adam Grandhart. Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, American, he has a twin sister, Anna-"

"Adam and Anna?" Suzuki interrupted and said skeptically, "And they're twins? _And_ they're American?"

"Hide, we have no clue who you're talking about," said Morita with a concerned look on his face.

"Gokudera-san, you met him before!" Hide looked over to the girl with a pleading look, "He and his sister came out of the sky and said they were going to kill me-!"

"That's awful!" she gasped.

"-But then he made a bargain with them," the boy rambled on, "He made them protect me!"

"Who made them protect you?" asked Morita.

Hide went blank; he couldn't remember anything at all about the 'he' he was talking about.

"Uh..." he thought about it long and hard before saying cautiously, "it had something to do with birth..."

"What?"

"His name," he added quickly, "His name had something to with being born in a whole new person..."

"Reincarnation?" Hanabi suggested.

"No, but it's close," Hide said thoughtfully, "It's kinda like what happens when a phoenix does when ever it dies and comes back to life."

"Rebirth?" asked Suzuki.

"Close..." the boy sighed and then he remembered something important, "Gokudera-san, he was the one that said you could be Vongola Boss if you beat me!"

She looked at him questionably and said, "Vongola Boss? What's that?"

He gave them all a horrified look, and then he realized that he also didn't know what a 'Vongola' was nor the reason why anyone would want to be boss of it.

"Um, I don't know..." he said slowly.

**_No! Hold onto it! The Vongola _is _you!_**

Hide looked around after hearing the strange voice again and said warily, "It's...me?"

**_Yes! That's it! Now remember!_**

"Remember..." he repeated, the voice sounded _very_ familiar to him.

**_Remember! This is all some silly trick! An illusion!_**

"It's an...illusion?" Hide blinked again and stared at his friends. They were suddenly looked very...strange, like they were clear as day but everything else around them was fuzzy. And their faces weren't quite right, like both of their eyes had switched places or a smile was a little crooked.

"Hide? Hide, are you alright?" Hanabi asked with a concerned look on her face.

**_Another trick! Gokudera-san always call you 'Twelfth!' She would rather strangle herself than call you 'Hide'!_**

"She _would_," he went pale and backed away slowly.

**_Remember! Remember Namimori! Remember mom, gramps, friends! Anna and Adam! Remember all those people! Remember your grandfather! Say his name!_**

Hide frowned and said sourly, "Sawada Tsunayoshi."

There was complete and total silence. His 'friends' gave him a blank stare and then one by one a creeping smile showing up on their faces.

"Oh very good," said Suzuki, his face was contorted into a mad expression that Hide hoped to never see on his friend's face ever again.

"But just saying names won't get you out," said Morita with the same expression.

Hanabi smirked and said in a tone of voice that suggested she was queen of something, "But why would you want to leave? You have everything you could ever want right here."

"You aren't my friends," Hide said slowly.

"No, but we could be better," they all said in a creepy sort of unison, "You would not be bothered with mafia-business here."

"But Adam and Anna aren't here," he argued.

"You don't need them," they said, "They are a burden and they only add stress to your mind."

**_Ignore them! They're tricking you! Remember the Vongola! You have to! It's you! And remember _that _person!_**

Hide took another step back as the voice shouted at him from where ever it was coming from. His 'friends' took a step forward. His head started hurting and everything around him was beginning to get distorted. The ground underneath his feet seemed to move even though his feet stayed in place.

**_Remember how he hit you! And strangled you! Remember how he turned your life upside down! Remember all those bullets he shot you with! And remember what you always said each time you were shot!_**

Hide gulped and muttered, "Reborn."

After that, Hide was jolted awake by a tazer.

**~8~**

"Oh? So _that's_ your plan?" was what Hide heard when he opened his eyes.

He found himself lying under a blanket in a freezing clod place. Hide pulled the blanket off and twinged a little.

"Oh, you're awake," he looked up and saw that he was face-to-face with an unimpressed Anna who was holding a tazer in her hand. She looked up and called, "Mr. Reborn."

Hide snapped his head up and towards who she was calling to. Reborn was standing before them with Leon sleeping soundly on his back in a glowing green ball.

"You're awake," the infant said without turning.

Hide glanced around and saw that the blanket he had been under was very large and had three person-sized shapes underneath it. A large door, or what _had_ been a door, was behind him and shattered into tiny little pieces. Hide looked back towards Reborn and saw that the baby hitman was facing a tall, indigo-haired person that was badly dressed and a woman with straw-blonde hair and was dressed very plainly. They both stood in front of a very large computer that seemed to scream bad stuff was up with it.

"Get up Boss," Anna urged, she grabbed Hide's are and lifted the boy to his feet, "Our fight is only beginning."

"Where am I? Who are those people?" he asked.

"Mist Morpheus and S-" Reborn began but stopped when he noticed that Amaterasu had vanished and spun around.

The God Box was only inches away from Hide's face and was staring deeply into the boy's eyes.

"Your eyes!"she said brightly, "They're like mine!"

"Get away!" Anna took her tazer and swiped it at Amaterasu, who backed away quickly with a despaired look on her face.

"I...I was only trying to-" she began.

"Amaterasu!" Morpheus called, "It's time for you to do your job!"

"Yes!" she snapped to attention and vanished again to appear just behind Morpheus.

"Begin the Upload!" it ordered, Amaterasu grabbed a few wires that were lying around and put two of each into her ears and another on the back of her neck.

_Beginning Upload..._The large computer screen read.

"What's going on?" Hide shouted as the computer was making a bunch of loud noises at this point.

"They're giving her a body," said Reborn calmly.

"They're giving who a body?" Anna shouted the question; the underground base began to shake violently.

"The base, they're giving her Amaterasu's body," he spoke in his still strangely calm voice, "Tsukamoto Yuuko."

**~8~**

_35 years ago..._

"Oi, Assistant!" Yuuko flinched when she heard her name and almost fell and let the stacks of paper work fly out of her hands, but 5 years of working as personal assistant to a Mafia Boss had taught her a thing or two. One of them was to not be surprised the first time, but save the shock for the second time.

"Whew," she sighed with relief.

"Tsukamoto!" the person who had called her name again was now at her ear and shouting.

Tsukamoto Yuuko squeaked and tossed the papers into the air after falling on her face.

"Che, can't even keep a hold onto some papers, dumb assistant!" Gokudera Hayato scolded her, "Did you start to run away the first time I called you?"

"No! Of course not Gokudera-sama!" she said nervously as she scrambled to gather the papers together.

"Then what were you doing?" he asked, "Walking away from me at a really fast speed?"

"Um...er..." she gathered the papers together and looked around for a distraction, because she remembered the last time she had agreed on the answer Gokudera had given her had ended up with him getting even angrier. "Oh look! It's Boss!"

"You're not going to fool me," he growled.

"But he's coming over-"

"Yeah right!"

"He is! He-"

"Listen kid, everyone knows that Boss is-"

"Boss is what? Gokudera-kun?" Gokudera spun around and saw his Boss smiling cheerfully behind at him.

"T-Tenth! I thought that you were in Italy!" he exclaimed.

"I can't leave Japan without my own personal assistant, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna stated, "And my wife, even though she's having our second son, isn't really getting happy with having a first son to handle. Right Donny?"

A small child that was holding Tsuna's hand looked up at Gokudera and Yuuko and said, "Mommy looks like a monster!"

Tsuna sighed wearily, he patted the child's head and said, "He's 5, I don't expect any less of him to say something like that."

"Will Mommy be fatter when we get home?" Donny asked.

"She's not fat, Donny, she has a baby inside her," Tsuna quickly realized that he chose the wrong choice of words.

"You mean she _ate_ someone!" the child looked horrified.

"N-No!" he shook his head quickly and tried to explain, "Look, it's like, uh, remember when Gokudera-kun's wife was, er, like Mommy last year?"

"Oh yeah," this calmed Donny down and after a little bit of thought said, "So a baby is going to come out?"

"Yes!" Tsuna nodded with relief.

"So..." the child said thoughtfully, a look of shock spread on his face, "I'm getting a brother!"

"You _just_ realized this?" Tsuna sighed and looked over to Yuuko, "Come on Yuuko-san, let's go before Donny start asking the embarrassing questions."

"Yes sir!" she nodded and quickly followed him as the father and son left.

"I'm coming too!" said Gokudera.

When they were outside the base and heading towards a large black car, Yuuko held up a hand that stopped the other three.

"Hold on!" she said and held out the hand she was holding up, "Give me the keys."

"What? No way!" Gokudera yelled.

"Gokudera-sama, everyone knows that you don't drive well," she stated.

"What! No I don't!"

"It's true Gokudera-kun," Tsuna agreed, "Last week you almost caused a pile up."

"That's because those idiots wouldn't move out of the way fast enough!"

"Gokudera-kun, it was a red light."

"So?"

Gokudera soon lost the argument and handed the keys over to Yuuko who snatched them away as quickly as possible from the man. She turned around and opened her mouth to say something as she clicked a button on the car's remote to unlock it. Then a large flash of light occurred. Then, since light was faster than sound, a loud sound.

**~8~**

**Read and review please :)**


	24. Ch 24: Leon's Wings

**New chapter out! In this chapter: Anna vs. Morpheus! Leon hatches! And...Hide's weapon is revealed!**

**And as always, read and review please :)**

**~8~**

The loud noises roared on from the large computer, Hide had to cover his ears with his hands in an attempt to stop hearing the machine roar noisily.

"These noises are so distracting, let's quiet it down then shall we?" Morpheus waved a hand in the air and then there was silence.

Hide cautiously removed his hands from his ears. There was no sound at all, as if some sort of silencer had not only worked on the computer but everything else in the room.

"It's another illusion," said Reborn, his voice echoed in the room.

"We need to stop that computer right?" asked Anna, she held up one of her tazers along with a stun gun.

"It'll take more than a little shock, Anna," the infant stated.

"Oh please, these things can go up to 50,000 volts, thanks to my modifications," she said, "Boss survived only because I put it on low, and he's lucky."

"How is getting shocked to near-death lucky in anyway!" Hide argued.

"You survived didn't you?" he didn't reply to this.

"Either way, you still need to get past me," Morpheus called from across the room.

"Don't worry Boss, I'll take care of this," said Anna.

Hide then noticed that Anna's clothes were all torn and ragged, and she was covered in dirt and blood.

"A-are you sure about that Anna?" he asked worriedly.

"Yes, why?" she asked.

"You look like you're covered in blood!"

"It's just a few broken ribs and scratches on my hands," she said dismissively.

"Broken ribs!"

"Don't worry about it," she said and kept her eyes on Morpheus, "Besides, I have a bone to pick with this guy."

"Then I guess it's decided," Morpheus said happily and snapped its fingers again, it was then facing face-to-face with Anna.

"When-?" she began, slightly shocked.

"I was always here," it said, "And I was always there, one of the advantages to being a God Box is that the affinity is already built in."

"Affinity?" Hide questioned.

"Each Box-type has its own affinity," Reborn explained, "The Sun's is Activation, Rain's is Tranquility, Storm's is Destruction, and Mist's is-"

"Creation!" the Box interrupted joyously, "As such, I can create anything I want! Even your own worst nightmare!"

"An illusion," the infant hitman said coldly.

"Like what happened to me?" Hide asked.

"That would be the effects of my blanket," said Morpheus, "it's a bit unconventional in a fight, but you'd be surprised how many people fall for an illusion that easily."

"I'll take myself out of it, like I did with Boss," said Anna, Hide could tell that she was a little bit proud of this.

"If you can," it grinned and snapped its fingers again.

The whole room suddenly became dark and gravity seemed to not be a problem anymore. A light appeared besides Hide and then another, and another, soon all around them were glowing lights that all seemed to slowly move around them. Next to Hide, there was a large orange sphere that had a thin, clear ring around it, Hide didn't try to touch it though because he felt that if he did the sphere would just suddenly get farther away.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"The universe," Morpheus spoke.

"An illusion," said Reborn.

"Get away," said Anna she swiped her tazer at Morpheus, who swiftly dodged it, and then she fired her stun gun at it.

Morpheus dodged this as well and was now floating enjoyably in the air, "I thought this would be suitable," it grinned.

"I'm gonna kill you," she said coldly and starting to attack, though this failed since gravity seemed to have lifted itself off of everyone so now she was just sort of swimming awkwardly in the air.

"Don't laugh!" she yelled at Hide.

"I wasn't!" he said, Reborn was floating calmly in the air with a Leon-ball in his hand, "Is Leon alright?"

"Oh yes, he'll break out of his cocoon any moment now," the infant replied confidently.

_Great, just great..._ Hide grimaced to himself, _Reborn's practically useless without Leon, Anna's super injured right now, and this weirdo with the funny hair is having the time of his life sending us to our doom._

"You should stop being so negative, Hide," his tutor said, "Only positive things come out of positive attitudes."

"That sounds like something a counselor would say," he said miserably.

"Oh come now Grandhart," Morpheus said in a pretentious British accent, it was obvious the God Box was using it just to annoy the hell out of Anna, "I know for a fact that you can put on a better fight."

"Ok, I seriously think you have me mixed up with someone," she said, "I just want to get this clear, my name is 'Anna Grandhart' not 'Daniel Grandhart' or anything like that. We share the same surname and nothing else."

"You have a 32.876% DNA match with him, and that's high enough for me," it said with a calm expression.

"Okay, so he's related to me, so what?" Anna rolled her eyes, "What does that prove?"

"Can anyone tell me who you guys are talking about?" asked Hide, they all stared at him for few seconds as if he had just appeared out of thin air.

"Daniel Grandhart," the Mist Box explained cheerfully after a moment of silence, "A professor that invented us and this base."

"A man I don't know," Anna frowned, Morpheus did the same.

"Liars aren't good," it waved a finger in the air.

"You said Daniel Grandhart, right?" asked Reborn thoughtfully, "Hm...What year do you think it is?"

"Year?" it questioned, "Why, it's 20XX of course, silly infant."

"I see..."

_20XX? Isn't that, uh...35 years ago?_ Hide thought to himself, _I wonder...how long have they been down here for...?_

"Their sense of time is off," Reborn shrugged and said, "Anna, you are probably getting mixed up with that scientist since you look so much like him."

"Look like him? Did _you_ know him Mr. Reborn?" she asked with sarcasm, but when Reborn didn't answer she asked seriously, "_Did_ you know him?"

"Reborn?" Hide looked at his tutor with an astonished look on his face.

"O-ho?" Morpheus raised a curious eyebrow and smiled, "You know, if I try I probably _do_ remember a small infant in a black suit with a green...thing. Well _do_ I know you? Mr. Reborn?"

"You shouldn't have memories, Morpheus," said Reborn.

"I have Construction on my side, I'm able to remember a lot of things," it said and then asked, "But I do believe that I just might remember you, Mr. Reborn, of course that only proves that this lying girl is Daniel Grandhart and this tiny boy is Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Tsunayoshi?" Hide's eyes widened, "Why does it know my grandfather?"

**~8~**

"Y-You want me to do _what,_ sir!" the scientist, Daniel Grandhart, fell to the ground and looked at his Boss with a horror-stricken face.

"You know what I said," said Tsuna in an almost dead voice, his face was almost completely hollow as he stared at a large, round metallic chamber that was nailed to the ground and reached the ceiling, pipes led out from the chamber and pumped freezing cold air from vents that were attached to it. A tiny window was at the face of the tube but was fogged up so nobody could actually see inside it.

"I-I _can't_ do that sir!" Daniel shook his head hurriedly, "For one thing it's like fifty types of wrong! And the subject's body will be totally un-salvageable if something goes wrong! I won't be able to do the procedure again if something goes wrong-"

"So you can do it?"

"Yes! But-"

"Good, then I will finance you and you will do it," Tsuna nodded confidently to himself, "Start tomorrow, no, tonight you'll be staying here until you get the job done."

"In _Japan_!" Daniel's mouth fell open and he said, "Listen sir, I don't know what exactly Mr. Verde told you, but it would take months and months to get that thing activated and then there's the transportation of equipment, and just think about the condition this, this…body will have!" Daniel yelled and waved a hand toward the large metal chamber, "I can't just take the stasis chamber on a plane and hope to hell that everything will be fine!"

"Who do you think we are?" the Vongola Boss asked in a strangely deadly tone, "The Vongola can make anything happen. And you have the whole thing written out on this blue print here."

Daniel grimaced as his Boss held out a large blue piece of paper with tiny white pencil scribbles all over it. It was a blue-print; ever since he had created the God Boxes, Verde stopped letting Daniel do the upgrade-Box-Weapons training exercises and instead gave him a bunch of blue print material and told him that any extra creativity that he had could go into those instead of coming to life. Of course, Daniel had tons and tons of blue-prints at his work area in the lab and he always showed them to Verde once he was done with them but he had absolutely no idea they would ever reach the Vongola Boss again.

The scientist gulped nervously after the Boss had said this; Tsuna regained his normal, calm composure and looked back at the metal chamber, he touched it lightly with his hand.

"She saved Donny from that explosion, and she's a very capable as an assistant," he was now much more calm, "She knows everyone in the Vongola and she was a Class A Sky Flame user, that makes her compatible enough."

"It's _wrong_!" someone yelled, Daniel wondered who had said this but then realized that it was him and quickly covered his mouth.

"What?" Tsuna asked without turning around, this only frightened Daniel out of his wits.

He gulped and slowly took his hand off his mouth and said slowly and nervously, "I-It's wrong sir...um, I know that it's, theoretically speaking, the perfect security system for the Vongola, and she is, theoretically again, the perfect subject for this project, but this is almost like the God Boxes all over again sir, only a whole lot worse!"

"I owe her my son's life," Daniel stared at his Boss's face for what seemed like hours but was actually seconds before finally he giving in and saying, "Fine, I'll do it. This will be the biggest mistake of my life though. It's like creating a cyborg but worse, I'm literally turning a human into a computer."

**~8~**

"How long are you gonna get everyone mixed up?" said Anna as she swung a fist at Morpheus, she almost hit the God Box but it decided to turn the gravity back on and so Anna fell flat on her face.

"Anna!" Hide yelped.

"I'm alright," she said as she got back up, "I only tripped a little that's all, don't worry Boss. I'll electrocute this Box-thingy to death."

"Electrocute, eh?" it grinned, another stun gun appeared in Anna's hand and she shot it at Morpheus, but instead of missing again she got out a tazer and charged towards the direction Morpheus dodged to.

She swung the tazer at it and low kicked it, the Mist Box stumbled to the ground and narrowly dodged Anna's tazers. It was a very strange sight though, what that they were fighting in space, or what looked like space. What also made it a strange sight was that Morpheus looked like it was as light as a feather and practically floated on the air, Anna on the other hand fought like a rock but in the sense that if the rock hit you it would hurt a lot.

Anna tossed the stun gun that was still in her hand behind her and took out another tazer from who knew where. She now had two tazers in both hands and held them up and put them together so that the sparks touched, then she slowly pulled them apart and the sparks of electricity looked as if they were still touching. The electricity crackled in her hands.

"Amazing isn't it?" said Reborn to Hide, "Anna has an amazing talent for making things and also an amazing talent for anything involved with electricity. When she was younger, she used to be called the Demon Child of Electricity."

"Take this!" she yelled and charged at him with the line of electricity in the air. And she hit it right on the chest. It smiled at Anna cheerfully and calmly, her eyes widened and she stared up at him.

"You...this is 50,000 volts..." she spoke.

"It's going to take more than a little shock to get to me," it said calmly and grabbed the tazer and shocked her with it.

"Anna!" Hide screamed, the girl fell to the ground and didn't move, "Anna!"

"This is bad," Reborn muttered.

"You think!" the boy yelled, "Reborn, this is getting ridiculous! _Do_ something!"

"I can't Hide," said Reborn, "Not only is it against the rules to interfere, but I'm also completely useless without Leon."

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" he paled as Morpheus took a step closer.

"What's this now? You can't fight, can you?" it said with a cheery face, "Oh, _this_ is going to be _fun_."

Hide's was stricken with horror and he turned to Reborn and pleaded with the child, "Reborn this is horrible! What am I going to do? What are _we _going to do?"

"I'm not going to do anything," he said, "Figure it out yourself."

"How..." the boy gaped at the him like a fish out of water, "You-You've always helped me haven't you? _I _have no clue what to do! How could you Reborn!"

Reborn then jumped up, kicked Hide harshly on the chin, and said, "Don't give me that pathetic excuse."

He grabbed Hide's shirt collar and pulled the boy down to his face until their noses were almost touching, "Listen up because I'm only going to say this once, there is no such thing as 'not knowing what to do', as long as you know what you _want_ then you'll know what to do."

He let go of the shocked boy and dusted his hands off; the Leon-ball on his back started to glow strangely.

Hide was so surprised by this he could only stammer, "What...I want...?"

"Yes, so the question you should be asking is: 'What do I want?'" said Reborn.

"What he wants?" Morpheus laughed at this, "He probably 'wants' to run away!"

"I...want..." the boy began slowly and thoughtfully, he looked at Anna's unconscious body, which was now slowly disappearing in the illusion, and he looked at his hands which were covered with white plaster-dust from the explosions earlier. Leon was beginning glowing brighter than a Christmas tree in the middle of the night but no one paid it any attention.

"Eh? What was that?" the Mist Box lifted a hand to its ear almost mockingly; Leon was shaking violently in its cocoon, "I couldn't quite hear you."

"...want to..." his muttered something, Reborn smirked at this; Leon was glowing brighter and brighter.

"You're going to have to speak up louder kid," Morpheus laughed; Reborn took notice of the chameleon's shaking and moved the ball to his hand in preparation of what would happen next.

"I want to protect my friends!" Hide cried out; Leon exploded, but not like the in-a-million-pieces explosion but more like a scatter-out kind of explosion.

The illusion soon disappeared as well and they were all back in the freezing, cold room with tiny little green threads that were now stuck all over the room (including the people inside the room) and were attached like a web to the Leon-ball in the center of the room.

"Wha-what happened to Leon just now?" Hide yelped when he saw the chameleon.

"Looks like Leon's 'wings' have finally come out," Reborn said as he watched the event happen in a completely calm manner.

"Wings? What's that supposed to mean?" Morpheus questioned as it swept some of the green threads off itself, "These do not look like wings!"

"Leon is a shape-shifting chameleon," he explained, "Whenever he goes into a cocoon-like state, it's a sign that my student will face a trial soon. This part is during the final stage, and after this a new weapon will emerge from Leon."

"A-A weapon!" Hide looked from Leon back to his tutor over and over again.

"A weapon?" Morpheus had a much calmer reaction to this as it rubbed its chin and said, "As fun as it would be if you got a weapon and watch you miserably fumble around with it, I don't really have the patience to let that happen now. Not when the upload is complete. So..." it bent down and picked up a pipe that was lying on the ground, "here!"

The pipe was thrown with a flick of the wrist and was sent through the air like a javelin, it pierced Leon and split the glowing ball of shape-shifting chameleon in half. Leon fell to the ground like two halves a pancake.

"Leon!" Hide yelped.

"Don't worry," said Reborn, Leon turned into liquid and formed himself together while flowing his way towards his master, "Leon's a shape-shifting chameleon, it'll take more to than a slice to hurt him. More importantly, it seems like something is still up there."

Hide looked up and saw that indeed something was still up there, he couldn't exactly see what it was since there was too much light illuminating it. He shielded his eyes a little and squinted to try and get a better picture.

"What are they...?" he said to himself; whatever it was, it was falling rapidly towards him and soon he got a pretty good picture of it, "Those...those are..." his amazement soon became horror as he realized what it was, "Those are-"

It fell on his face, he yanked them off his face and yelled, "_COWBOY BOOTS_!"

**~8~**

**Haha, so Boots won the poll by 1 vote! If you're interested in the results, here:**

**Boots-8**

**Bo-7**

**Gloves-3**

**Nothing-1**

**But just to amuse you guys, I sort of planned out what kind of ridiculous form the weapons would be without Dying Will powering them. Bo was going to be like a regular stick or a tooth pick, Gloves were going to be cooking mitts (instead of the woolen mittsTsunahad), and the Boots are cowboy boots (the dorkiest kind of boots). As you can tell, I had a lot of fun planning these outlol.**

****I still have more to say! And if you want to hear it, go over to my forum called:Just another Forum and looked under the topic headed:On the subject of future fictions...where Nehszriah also comments on his story,Vongola Undicesimo!**

**KHR belongs toAmano Akira **


	25. Ch 25: Hide's Resolution

**Hope you like this chapter, and as always read and review :)**

**~8~**

"Cowboy boots!" Hide gawked at the pair of white leather cowboy boots in his hands, but they weren't all pointed at the tip though like what most cowboy boots were, "How are white leather boots supposed to help me fight!"

"Who knows," Reborn shrugged, "Better get them on quick though."

Hide did exactly what his tutor suggested and kicked his sneakers off before pulling the cowboy boots on his feet. Something small and shiny fell out of the boots while he was putting them on, but Hide didn't pay it any attention.

"Cowboy boots?" Morpheus snickered and then turned the snicker into a hardy laugh, "Oh man, that's hilarious!"

It stopped its laughter abruptly and picked another pipe that was lying on the ground and held it in a throwing position, "But they won't help protect you from much."

Reborn looked down when something small and shiny rolled to his feet; he smiled and picked it up, "Oh? I haven't seen one of _these_in a long time," he said happily.

Hide screamed as he started running away when the pipe landed just in front of his face, "Eeek!" he screamed again in horror, he felt something grab his foot and saw that Morpheus was holding it down. The Mist Box then pulled the boy up by the foot until he was dangling in the air.

"Sorry, I really don't like messing up the building any further than it already is," it sighed and threw the boy at the wall as if he was a ragdoll. Hide landed on the other side of the wall, covered in pieces of wall and plaster.

"Hm, that was easier than I expected," Morpheus wiped its hands satisfactorily and looked over to Reborn, "Or that's what I would say if I was an idiot."

Reborn grinned with a lime green handgun in his hand that had smoke coming from the tip of its muzzle. The handgun turned into a chameleon that quickly crawled its way up Reborn's arm where the infant smiled and said:

"That's correct."

**~8~**

_Its cold…_Hide thought, he felt his body quickly become numb all over and surprisingly sleepy as he kept drifting in and out of consciousness, _Am I…dying? Wow, that sucks…I don't even feel like I_tried_to save my friends…I guess this is the end everyone…sorry this is all I can do..._

He cracked open an eye and stared at his hand, it was covered in blood and blisters. A cold mist was creeping around his red fingers, probably coming from the freezing cold room he was laying in front of_…It was too much for me…all this pain, all this fear…_

"_Oh my, what a selfish boy!"_

_What? Mom?_

Hide could now see his mother in the hospital lobby; she was sitting by herself in a chair with her elbows on her knees and her head resting the palms of her hands. She frowned and said out loud haughtily, "That boy, oh my, leaves his mother to worry over things! He didn't even say good bye when he left!

_Why is mom here? _Hide thought, _Is this a dream? Another illusion?_

The image faded out into blackness and he now saw something else.

"_What is this!"_

He heard someone sigh disappointedly, he could see rain and Rosario was standing in front of his house swinging a door in and out while yelling, "Geez, what is this? The young Twelfth left the door open before going out? What kind of Boss is that?" she took out a clipboard and wrote something down, "Careless."

_Rosario-san…? Why is she at my house?_

"_That's right, don't worry_."

_Now it's Gramps?_

Hide saw his gramps in his restaurant, he looked like talking on the phone to someone, "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine without my help! He's a little on the weak side and all, but he's got strong people with him!" his gramps laughed heartily.

_Eh? Why am I seeing all these things?_

"That's the effect of a special bullet I shot you with," said Reborn, the infant was now standing before Hide with his hands in his pockets, "You were hit with the Rebuke Bullet, what your seeing and hearing now are the rebukes from everyone you've every known."

_Rebukes!...w-why do I have to listen to what everyone is saying behind my back…? I don't want to be reminded in my last few moments of how much of a loser I was!_

"_He was a little bit boring…"_

_Eh? I-is that Megumi-chan?_

He saw Megumi staring at a puddle on the sidewalk as rain was dripping down it, "I hope he and Morita-kun make it back though," she said with a wry smile.

_Megumi-chan…_

"_Wow I'm wet!"_ Hide saw Adam underneath some trees that he recognized from around the shrine. The boy was squeezing out water from his shirt as the rain was pouring harder; Hide noticed that he was only doing it with one arm though while the other was hanging limp at his side.

"Can't believe I was so careless there," he said thoughtfully, "I'm sure Boss is handling things better up there though."

_Even Adam?_

"I have confidence," Adam grinned hopelessly and shook some water out of his hair, "He's my Boss, I _have_ to have confidence."

…_Confidence? In me…?_

"_What do you think, sir?"_

_Huh?_

Hide now saw the inside of some sort of large office that was wall-to-wall with books; a large oak desk was in front large windows that gave a beautiful view of the sky and grassy hills. Sitting in the chair at the desk was an elderly man that was writing something down; he put down his pen and asked, "What?"

"What do you think, sir?" a voice asked from somewhere Hide could not see, "About your grandson?"

Hide had never heard this voice in his entire life, but something was familiar about the old man at the desk. The boy noted that he looked a little bit like him as well, like an older-version of Hide.

"Um, he's an alright boy," the old man coughed and resumed writing; he then stopped abruptly and asked, "Why?"

"Oh, no reason sir," said the voice, it sounded like a young lady.

The old man put the pen down again and said, "Well, I only met the boy once. I'm not _that_ good of a judge of character. But I know that Hideyoshi-kun will make a fine leader for the Vongola, he's very caring, that boy, and he knows what he wants. That's very important."

"Anything else, sir?" the voice asked.

"Hmm…" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully and, this part shocked Hide a little, seemed to look straight at Hide, he smiled and said, "Yes, he has a lot of people waiting for him."

_Is that…?_

Hide's hand started shaking, he looked at Reborn who smiled, "I don't have to say my Rebukes, now do I?"

Hide closed his weak and tired eyes and thought about his friends, his family, all the people he was leaving behind. All the people that he was never going to see again. Those times he was chased around by Reborn, when he was training with Adam, getting blown up by Hanabi, being begged to do things by Morita, helping Suzuki deliver sushi, all those things that Hide really didn't like doing were all flooding his head…and the strangest part of it all was that he wanted to protect those things with all his might…even if he was dying…

**_Do it! Do something!_** That voice yelled at him, Hide opened his eyes again and sat up.

"Oh? You have enough strength to sit up?" Morpheus questioned, it disappeared and then reappeared right before Hide, "But I can put a stop to that."

It moved in to kick Hide in the gut, but was surprised when the boy dodged out of the way quickly. He then stood up and moved out of the way from Morpheus.

"So you're a little bit quicker," it said and charged towards Hide, "So what?"

"Morpheus," Hide spoke calmly, his eyes gazed at the Mist Box as it ran towards him with a fist in the air, he stopped it in a second. He dropped down on his hands kicked his feet up so that he was now upside down and he kicked the Box, it blocked the kick but widened it's eyes in shock.

"Morpheus," he said again, "Even if I'm dying, I'll protect my friends to the very end!"

Hide's eyes were now a clear and sharp, beautiful orange color, and a large orange flame erupted on his forehead. Along with other changes, his white leather cowboy boots were now black steel-toed boots that had 'XII' in metal lettering on the sides. The Boots were covered in the same orange flame that was on his forehead.

Morpheus quickly withdrew the arm that it blocked the kicked with and held its arm close to itself, it looked at it and saw that the arm was now dried and cracked and looked like petrified wood.

"M-My arm!" it yelped.

"That would be the effect of the Sky Flame's 'Harmonization' affinity," Reborn stated, "That thing that fell out of Hide's boots a little while ago was a Rebuke Bullet, it brings out the calm fighting side of the Dying Will effect. With this, his power is enhanced and dramatically increased."

Morpheus frowned and said, "You're still no match for my skills." The Box then disappeared and reappeared behind Hide while running, "Like this!"

The boy didn't even have to turn around to know Morpheus was coming; he spun on one foot and did a back kick into Morpheus' face.

"My face!" it screamed as it covered its face with its hands.

"An illusion," Hide muttered calmly and moved aside right at the moment another Morpheus appeared and tried to punch him.

"This is an illusion also," he said and then looked to his left as if he had noticed something, Hide jumped onto his hands and did a somersault in the air with one of his legs sticking out so that he could do a drop-kick. His Boots made contact with something that screamed shortly after.

"Graaagh!" Morpheus screamed out as it fell to the ground, it then stared in horror at its hands and gasped, "W-What is this feeling! This isn't an _emotion_!"

"Its pain, Morpheus," said Hide in a deadly calm tone, "Reborn told me that God Boxes couldn't feel pain, he also told me before what this orange flame is called," he looked down at his Boots, "It's called a Sky Flame, and its affinity is 'Harmonization' meaning it can neutralize the effects of any other Flame type and it's effects on Box Weapons is that it petrifies them."

"What's this? Acting all clever all of the sudden?" Morpheus hissed at Hide angrily.

"No," Reborn shook his head, "This is also another effect of the Rebuke Bullet, instead of enhancing Hide's Will the Rebuke Bullet allows him to realize his hidden will power and releases his body's limiters, while also releasing the limiters on his internal sense. In this case, it's Hide's ability to 'see through things', a talent that is inherited by all of the Vongola bloodline: Hyper Intuition."

"What?" Morpheus scowled; its face was dry and cracked-looking, like its arm, from being kicked in the face by Hide. A small chip of its face fell to the ground and if you looked closely you could see a glowing mixture of something that was indigo colored and swirling around constantly.

"I'm glad that you aren't human," Hide said as it walked towards Morpheus.

"What did you say?"

"At least this way, I won't be upset later," he continued and kicked Morpheus again; it was thrown back at the large computer in the back.

Amaterasu was still standing perfectly still and the computer was reading: _Uploading…_ a white bar was underneath the text that had just a little bit that wasn't quite white but more of the color of the computer screen. But the whiteness was growing inside the bar.

"Wait, wait!" Morpheus yelped as Hide started walking towards it, "Do you really think that killing me will stop the upload? Do you?"

He stopped for a second and then said after a lengthy pause, "It's impossible to kill a thing that was never alive."

"B-But I know how to stop the upload!" it said with a pleading look on its face, "You need me don't you? Because, trust me, you do _not_ want to mess with that woman!"

"That woman?" Hide stopped and questioned, "What are you talking about?"

"What do you think the computer is uploading onto Amaterasu?" Morpheus asked shakily, its gaze shifted nervously as the cracks on its face seemed to threaten to chip, "Its uploading software, but not just any software too, no, the computer is uploading the software of the Base's own processing software, the _brain_ of the computer is being uploaded onto Amaterasu!"

Hide's glowing orange eyes narrowed and he said, "You're not making any sense."

"It's uploading a person," Morpheus said nervously, "Once this upload is done, that woman will kill you and me, now that I've told you all this. But I can tell you how to turn the computer off!"

"We should probably listen, Hide," he heard Reborn suggested, "This is a good idea."

Hide muttered something and Morpheus asked, "What?"

"An illusion," he repeated, "Reborn would never say that. When are you going to stop this foolishness?"

"Hmph," the Box smirked, "Then you saw through it."

The God Box soon faded away from its spot, but Hide could tell that the time he had kicked Morpheus all the way to the computer was real since there was dent where the Box Weapon had landed. Hide turned around to where Reborn was supposed to be and saw the infant standing exactly where he last saw him.

"Are you an illusion?" he asked bluntly.

Reborn smiled and said, "What do you think idiot?"

Hide took this as a 'no' and believed it, because that sounded like something that only Reborn would ever say. He surveyed the room and little and looked down at his Boots, the cold air was circulating around them was like a cool mist as it poured out from the vents by the ground.

The frost around the floor tiles and the cold mist did not seem to be affected by the orange flames on his Boots. Hide then noticed that the flames were neither hot nor cold, it didn't even feel like anything. He could see the flames as clear as day but he couldn't feel them at all, Hide bet that if he closed his eyes he would easily be able to forget that they were even there. But he didn't mention this bet out loud of course.

The boy quickly shook his head and got back to trying to 'sense' Morpheus, since he couldn't _not_ see illusions whenever he felt like it, it wasn't like he had a switch in his head that he could turn on and off when he didn't want to see them. He just knew that when ever there was an illusion was going on something was always just a little bit off. Like things would just get too surreal for no reason or the details to things suddenly appeared as if they were a last minute detail and only when you looked actually at it.

He stood perfectly still and waited silently, his eyes glowing orange in the dark, cold room. The flames on his Boots swirled around them softly. Hide took a deep breathe in and warmed his cold palms, there wasn't any sign of Morpheus around him so he thought that warming his hands up would make for better time and possibly make the God Box try to make fun of him.

"Getting cold are we?" Hide nodded to himself that he was right, "Do you want me to take the cold away? I can do it, I can-"

"Stop," he interrupted and said, "Morpheus, Reborn said that each of you God Boxes represented an emotion, I think I just found out what yours is. It's cowardice, right?"

The cold mist seemed to move unnaturally now and room became darker. Shadows crept from the corners of the room and started to move closer and closer to Hide.

"I know that Poseidon's is fear, but fear and cowardice aren't the same," he continued, "You always have fear even when you're standing up to something, but cowardice is just when you're too scared to even face your problems. You keep all the other Boxes under your thumb to make sure they don't hurt you, and even now you are probably cowering somewhere in a corner of this room and using your illusions as a veil."

"You're wrong," Morpheus's voice spread across the room.

"You put on the illusion that you're a big shot, but in reality you are just a coward," the shadows began reaching Hide's feet and then crawled up his Boots, "Even now, this is an illusion," the darkness was now up to his waist and stopped right there.

"How?"

"You coward," Hide swung his whole body around and kicked the air; there was a satisfying _thud_when he hit Morpheus.

Something went flying across the room and the shadows quickly retreated to wherever they went. The Boots ignited themselves and pushed Hide off the ground, he flew towards where Morpheus went flying and kicked an invisible body.

It made a 'gak!' sound but Hide stomped once more and the body screamed. The illusion soon fell away and Morpheus was revealed with cracks all over its body except for half of its face. Morpheus screamed loudly in pain and looked at Hide with spite.

"Y-You bastard! You-" it began shakily, Hide stepped on its cracked and chipped leg which it then started to shrivel away into dust, "M-My leg! What's going on!"

"Harmony," Hide answered, its other leg started to turn to dust and then it started to lose its waist.

"My body!" it screamed, "What are you doing to my body!"

"Nothing," he said calmly, "Your body has been stressed enough, and it's about time you were put away, Morpheus. If it helps, I think only your head will be left since it's the only thing intact."

"Don't touch me!" it hissed, its cracked hands began to into dust and spread to its arms, "You touch me and those hands will turn me to dust, like the rest of my body!"

"No, they won't," he said, and looked at his bare hands, "I'll protect the ones I love with these hands, and these feet will stomp out anything that threatens them. You aren't going to threaten much if you're just a head."

"Shut up! I can still use my illusions!" it yelled.

"And then what?" he asked, "You will silently make people go crazy, but what will you do afterwards? There's no point in it anymore, you need to go back to your Box, Morpheus, and then maybe you'll be less cowardly in the next life."

The Box stared at him with wide, indigo eyes, its body turned to thin grains of pale dust and sand. Its face looked completely dumbfounded and Hide had seen this expression before the first time he had seen Poseidon. It was a child-like expression, but this one was sadder than Morpheus's, it was like a lost child.

"_Upload complete_." Hide spun around to the computer and saw that the white bar was full. Morpheus blinked and then regained its composure.

"Oh? Look at that!" it said triumphantly, "The upload is complete! You don't stand a chance now! Hahahah!"

Hide looked over to Amaterasu and immediately noticed that something was different about her. The God Box opened her brown eyes which flashed into an onyx black, the straw-blond hair that was tied in a neat bun suddenly became erratic and messy and turned black. Amaterasu's skin color also changed to a much paler tint. The clothes she was wearing also seemed to change shape and color as well.

"You know," Morpheus grinned, "It's quite hilarious actually, Amaterasu had it in her head that _she_ was a _Sun_ Box. Hah!"

"What?" Hide eyed the Mist Box with his orange-glowing eyes.

"You don't even know your own culture's beliefs?" it smirked and said knowingly, "Amaterasu, goddess of the Sun and everything underneath."

Hide's eyes widened as he looked up sharply at the God Box's changing shape.

"Her _real_name isn't Sun Amaterasu," Morpheus spoke, "its Sky Amaterasu."

"Geh," the Box's mouth twitched.

"Oh? She's waking up," the Mist Box grinned again.

Amaterasu's whole body was now completely different. For one thing, she was shorter, and smaller. She looked like a completely different…what ever she was.

The woman before Hide now lifted a hand, Hide took a step back cautiously, and then the hand grabbed a hold of the wires in her ears and pulled them out. She dropped them on the ground and slowly took a step forward, the plug from the back of her neck pulled itself out along with the wires in her other ear. The mist that the cold air stirred silently under her feet with each step she took.

Morpheus grasped her ankle with a desperate look on its face.

"Help me, master," it croaked, "Make me new again."

She eyed him for a second before waving a dismissive hand and moving forward. The Box's indigo eyes widened with fear.

"Wha-what are you doing?" it yelled as its body of sand was sucked into a small indigo cube that was hidden somewhere in the corner of the room, its head then turned to sand as well and was sucked in like a vacuum.

"What happened?" Hide asked cautiously, "Where did Morpheus go?"

"Back in its Box," said Reborn, "it is a Box weapon after all; she's probably storing up energy."

"For what?"

"For that."

Hide snapped his head in the woman's direction but was then hit underneath his chin by a palm being thrust upwards. And then she punched him in the gut.

"Gak!" Hide coughed as he was stumbled backwards while holding his stomach.

"Sa…wada…Tsu…nayo…shi..." she muttered while staring at the hand she had just punched him with.

"What?" he coughed and quickly backed away from the woman once he had caught a glimpse of her eyes.

"Alone…" she muttered to herself, "So…alone…"

"What?" Hide asked again.

"You…left me here," she said and looked up at HIde, "Alone…so alone…"

"No I didn't," he shook his head.

"She thinks that you are your grandfather, Hide," Reborn explained.

"No," she suddenly said, her voice was now picking up the pace, "You are not the man I'm looking for, you are…different, but the same…What is your name, child?"

Hide shivered when he made eye contact with the woman, her eyes glinted like black pebbles and the computer was glowing just behind her and silently humming.

"Sawada Hideyoshi," he answered.

"Sawada…so you are related?" she asked.

"I guess we are," he said cautiously, "Who are you?"

"Me?" she looked a little surprised for a second and then said, "It's been a long time since anyone has asked me that…My name is Tsukamoto Yuuko."

"Tsukamoto?" the image of the wall on one of the floors arose in Hide's mind, he remembered the bold black lettering that read: TSUKAMOTO V.1.

"You're the…computer?" he asked cautiously.

"That's technically correct," she answered, her black onyx eyes glanced downwards and said thoughtfully, "I remember it being such a long time ago…"

**~8~**

**My, my, this is a looong chapter, I had a little trouble writing it in the middle parts and the end. I kept on thinking, 'wow this is going to be super long, should I stop it now?' but then I reminded myself that the next chapter shall be the last! At least the last of this arc.**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter: Going to sleep**

**KHR belongs to Amano Akira**


	26. Ch 26: Going to Sleep

**Oh man, I'm officially _sick_ of fight scenes now and over emotional stuff! I'm going back to doing humor and short stories like with the first few chapters! And then maybe when I'm all tired of the gags, I'll go back and start the next arc.**

**So lots of stuff happens, blah, blah, blah, I hope you guys like it, I know its going kind of crazy but hopefully this chapter will clear a lot of stuff up.**

**Review or email me if any of you guys are confused about anything that has happened in this arc.**

**~8~**

Yuuko couldn't really remember a whole lot; she barely had any memories from when she was alive. Giannini helped with that, he installed special software that gave her some memories from when she was alive. But she could never tell if these were really her memories or not, she'd been a little bit doubtful whether the installed memories were real. Giannini had told her they were, they came from security cameras, he explained.

Yuuko believed him, but those 'memories' didn't seem to suffice for her, 'what about my family?' she would ask, did she have a mother or a father? Or did she have brothers or sisters? Old friends? Giannini told her not to worry about that stuff, but she always thought about it.

Now _real_ memories were different from the installed memories Giannini gave her, all of her real memories had been when she was a computer. Her first real memory was suddenly seeing a blonde-haired man, who she instantly knew was named Daniel Grandhart, and a worried looking man with messy brown hair, who she knew as Sawada Tsunayoshi and she knew that he was especially important.

"Where am I?" she asked, she felt…odd. Like she was spread out all over the place and she also felt strangely hollow.

"Tsukamoto-san?" she instantly knew that was her name, "Tsukamoto-san, how do you feel?"

"I feel…strange," Yuuko answered she tried looking at her hands but found that she couldn't move at all, but for some reason she could see the room she was in from all sorts of different angles.

"Don't be alarmed, Tsukamoto-san," the man named Daniel said hurriedly, "You had a, um, bad accident…"

And so he explained it, he explained everything. The car bomb. The plans. Everything. Yuuko asked question after question, and he seemed to have the answer to everything. Once he was done with explaining, she was quiet for a little while, slightly scared but also slightly flattered that someone would care that much for her.

She didn't like this memory that much, it was a bad and slightly awkward memory. Yuuko remembered afterwards spending a few months trying to get used to it, and she spent the next year having tons of software and repairs done on her. This also wasn't a happy time, but she felt happy just spending time with Tsuna, that was her Boss, and all of his Guardians, they would tell her of times when she was alive and cheered her up just by having them around.

But as the months went on, she soon noticed that less and less people were coming to the underground base. And very soon nobody came at all except for the scientist who had helped to keep her alive. But all things come to an end, and one day he came into the control room with a very sad look on his face.

"Tsukamoto-san," Daniel began sadly, "The Vongola HQ has been moved to Italy, I have already installed a copy of your software into the computer database there. Don't worry, I'll be putting you in sleep mode until we decide to move the base back here again."

"When will that be?" she had asked.

"Um," he had an uncertain and hesitant look on his face when he said this, "Not very long."

It was very long. Yuuko remembered this well, she was put into 'sleep mode' which may as well have been the same as turning her off. She felt lonely and empty for a long time, she couldn't move at all and she was stuck in the same place for nearly 35 years. No one was there to wake her up, or keep her company, or entertain her through those droll 35 years.

Then one day a sudden magnetic rush ran through her, she woke up and it was like being turned on all over again…except this time she had her memories. And when she 'woke up' she felt strangely angry and sad and scared and lonely. Ideas and thoughts all rushed in to her head, or at least where she thought her head was, and it was horrible.

A robotic arm, one of _her_ robotic arms, came out of the wall and moved around like a serpent for something, anything. It touched upon a safe. A large safe that was probably two feet thick with steel. She knew what it was, it was forbidden to open the vault but she opened it anyways. Yuuko also knew how to ignite the Sky flame with her robotic arms, an arm reached out and grabbed a seemingly random Box, it was bright orange and had a small hole on it.

She inserted the flame in it and the Box opened, and a person came out, Yuuko decided it was a woman. And the woman was crying because she was so lonely. Yuuko felt sympathy for the Box, because it also had not been 'woken up' for a long time. And then an idea sprung into her head.

"Of course you're lonely," Yuuko tried to comfort the God Box, "Nobody has opened you in such a long time. But you won't be lonely for long, I'll open more Boxes and then you'll have friends and people that you can trust. People that will stay with you no matter what happens, forever and ever."

And now she was in front of this boy, who looked strangely like her Boss, except she knew he wasn't her Boss because he was slightly different. He was shorter for one thing. Yuuko now knew that they were related since they shared the same family name.

"You…aren't the man I'm looking for, but…" she began slowly, "Maybe I can make you tell me where he is."

"What?" the boy's orange eyes widened as Yuuko disappeared and then reappeared behind him; she swung an arm around his neck and bent backwards. This sent the boy flying backwards on his head.

"It's fair right?" she said while still holding onto him, "You're a Sky flame user and so am I, it won't be like fighting Morpheus."

"My head…" Hide moaned while rubbing his head.

"Keep your eye on the goal, kid," he heard her say and before he knew it, Hide was sent flying in the air and as he fell back to the ground Yuuko punched him in the stomach making him fly into the air again. She punched him again and this process repeated over and over again. The Boots ignited themselves and Hide flew out of the way from another punch and towards the other side of the room. He held his bruised side closely and looked at Yuuko with fear.

"You can fly, huh?" she said distantly, "You remind me of that man, that man called Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"You mean grandfather?" Hide questioned.

"Grandfather?" Yuuko questioned and then smiled to herself, "It must have been a_ long_ time."

"What are you planning on doing?" asked Reborn from the other side of the room, Leon was perched on his hand as if ready to turn into a gun or any other weapon at any second.

"Me? I don't know, probably get rid of that man who put me to 'sleep' and then kill the man that ordered him to put me to 'sleep. But first," she looked at Hide, "I might kill you guys because I have a feeling that you will only cause me trouble if I just leave you like this."

Hide looked back at his friends, the blanket that had been covering them had disappeared when Morpheus went back in its Box. So they were now just lying there, unconscious and unmoving.

He looked back at Yuuko and said with determination, "I won't let you do that, Tsukamoto."

"I have a lot of anger pinned up inside me right now, kid," she said calmly, "It would not be wise to act like your grandfather."

"If you're going to kill my friends then I'll stop you," Hide knelt down to his orange flamed Boots, "Even if I'm dying, I'll protect my friends with these hands and with my Boots I'll stomp out anything that threatens them."

"That's some tag-line you got there, kid," she said before disappearing and then reappearing at Suzuki's side, she picked the boy up by his hair, "I think I'll start with this one."

"No!" the Boots ignited and Hide made them thrust himself towards the woman, he took a hold of her arm so he could grab it away from Suzuki.

Yuuko smiled at this and said, "Bad move, kid."

Hide's quickly withdrew his hand and looked down at it, his hand was covered in a thin layer of ice. Except it wasn't ice, Hide realized, ice was cold but this was _warm_. He dismissed this observation because it was useless to thing about and he could still move his hand slightly, but he decided to avoid trying to touch Yuuko.

"It's called 'Zero Point Breakthrough' its something I learned a while back from a certain man I once knew," said Yuuko, she switched hands and was now holding Suzuki by his neck, Hide's eyes widened when her grip tightened and she said outlandishly, "But, I wonder what'll happen if I freeze his neck, will he stop breathing? Or will his blood stop circulating? Maybe both."

"Stop!" he yelled, "Stop! If you want to hurt someone, then let it be me! Just leave them alone!"

Yuuko eyed him for a little while and smirked, "I hate that."

The boy's mouth was hanging open, "What…?"

"I hate that," she stated again, "That attitude, you'll give your life to save your friend, yes? And then what? If you die how long will they remember you? And if you live, they will leave you eventually, everyone leaves. Trust me, kid."

"But he's my friend now!" Hide argued, "That's all that matters, here and now. And I've been friends with him since we were kids! I won't let anything bad happen to him!"

"Really?" she rolled her eyes skeptically, "Then what about him?" she pointed at Morita, "And her?" her finger moved to Anna, "And her?" she pointed at Hanabi, "I used to be like that, I used to love my 'friends' and I always thought they would be with me forever, but I found out that they didn't treat me as a 'friend' they treated me like a piece of junk. And let me tell you, kid, nothing ever lasts. Even this base doesn't last, it's rotting to the ground and will soon become just another piece of junk."

"They're all my friends," he persisted with a pleading look on his face, "I'll protect them, just…_please_…don't hurt them."

"Oh your strong feelings have swayed my heart and you have forever convinced me that friends really _do_ stay forever!" she exclaimed dramatically, she raised her arm and dropped Suzuki unceremoniously to the ground; she then lowered her arms and said, "Just kidding."

Yuuko disappeared in a flash and reappeared once more in front of him. She held her hands behind her back and kicked Hide in the side before he could react. He fell to the ground and Yuuko bent down and picked the boy up by his hair until his feet were only a few inches from the ground.

"I gave my life to protect someone important to me," she spoke, "It was my Boss's son, your father, I think. He was such a cute boy, I saved his life in exchange for mine. But what happens? Large piece of shrapnel, right into my heart, could have cut that little boy's head off."

"Stop this, Tsukamoto," said Reborn from the other side of the room, "You're better than this, I know it."

"Oh? Look who it is, it's Reborn-_sama_," she said cheerfully, but the way she said 'sama' was as if it was poison and she continued to say it that way, "Let me guess, you're tutoring this boy now, aren't you? Home Tutor Hitman Reborn-sama. You're wrong though, Great Tutor, people change, things change."

"People do change," the infant replied wisely, "But inside they are essentially always the same."

"Really now?" Yuuko asked, "That might be true, I mean it is for _you_ isn't it?" she looked at Hide who was cringing with pain, "Have you told him yet? About you're 'condition'? Does he know what you are, Arcobaleno-sama?"

"That's not the point, Tsukamoto," Reborn said grimly, "Let go of Hide, I know that deep down inside you really don't want to hurt him."

"I don't, do I?" she asked skeptically, she threw the boy up in the air and kicked him in the gut as if he was a soccer ball, "Then what's this?"

Hide collapsed onto the ground and tried to get up; his Boots helped him fly out of the way from Yuuko. He lightly landed on his feet over by where the computer was. He clutched at his sides and gritted his teeth.

"I'm not the same anymore, Reborn-_sama_," she said as she walked over to the boy, "I'm not even human anymore," she looked around and noticed Hide trying to get up, "Oh? Where do you think you're going?"

"Over here," he said and flew up to the ceiling and busted the sprinkler above them open. Water started gushing out from the sprinkler head and the droplets of water rained on the computer causing sparks to fly everywhere.

"Clever, but it's too late for that," Yuuko shrugged as water started drizzling on her, "This body doesn't run on electricity and it doesn't rely anymore upon the computer either."

Hide snatched something off the ground while flying through the air. And after lightly tapping the wall, he bounced off it and went straight for Yuuko. She noticed the tazer in his hand and moved aside to avoid it.

"Is that _really_ your plan?" she asked skeptically, "You're going to take advantage of the fact that I'm drenched and electrocute me with a couple tiny volts of electricity?"

"Not just tiny volts of electricity," he said and flew at her again, this time successfully hitting her, "_50,000_ volts of electricity."

"Eh?" she questioned right before the tazer met with her skin. Yuuko's whole body was suddenly lit up like a light bulb when she was electrocuted; it was mesmerizing how brightly she lit up.

She wasn't screaming though, which was weird but Hide soon remembered that God Boxes couldn't feel pain and this woman had taken over the body of a God Box. It was sort of spooky to watch, as this person was lit up, electricity crackling all over her body, and an almost dead expression on her face. Though, Hide couldn't help but notice, she stood dead still as well, just looking into her eyes Hide could tell that she was surprised.

He withdrew the tazer and took a few steps back cautiously, and Yuuko was no longer looked like a brilliant light bulb. But every now and then a sparks would crackle along her clothing.

"M-My body," she said with the same dead expression, "I-I can't move…"

Hide relaxed a little at this but tensed back up when the woman started to move shakily. It looked like she was having difficulty with each step as she jerked her feet and arms.

"No…" she said in disbelief, her dead expression became one of horror and she continued, "No, no, no! I-I _need_ to move, I don't want to stop! If I stop, I'll be right where I started!"

"It's time to stop Tsukamoto," said Hide, he stretched out a helpful hand to her and said, "We can both go and leave this place."

Yuuko stared at it for a few seconds before turning her gaze to Hide's face and glaring at it, "I don't _need_ that! I _need _to move! I'll do this on my own and then I'll leave this place alone after I'm done killing you!"

"Well, you don't need to be alone either," Hide pointed out, "And you also don't need to kill anyone, so take my hand and I'll help you."

She stared at the hand again, but she jerkily raised a arm and slapped it away. Then Yuuko tried to hit him but failed as her punch was weak and her fist was shaking uncontrollably.

Hide caught the fist lightly and, to Yuuko's delight, shards of ice started forming on his hand and began crawling up his arm.

"Stop it, Tsukamoto," he said, the ice stopped without Yuuko telling it to, "You're done for."

No…" she said in fear, "No! What's happening? Why isn't this body listening to me!"

"Because it's not yours," Hide explained and then Yuuko fell to the ground she struggled when trying to get up.

Her arms and legs weren't listening to her and were shaking and jerking around controllably, and her sense of balance was so off she couldn't even get up. She stared at her body in horror and screamed.

"No!" she got to her knees and screamed, Hide flinched at the horrid sound as the sprinkler sprinkled harshly like heavy raindrops, "I don't want to be alone anymore! NOOOOOO!"

_No wonder she hates me…_Hide thought sadly, _It was my grandfather that left her in this place. She was abandoned here, left to rot and crumble with the rest of this base…_

"You can't save her anymore, Hide," said a voice, he turned around and saw Reborn standing behind him with a hollow look on his face and water dripping from his fedora hat, "We can't take her with us, she'll only be confiscated and shut down by the Vendicare, which is the equivalent to the Mafia world's police.

"You-you won't leave me!" Tsukamoto growled, she shakily got to her feet and glared at Hide angrily, "I'd rather die painfully than be alone!"

**~8~**

"Not very long." Those were the last words she heard before being left alone to 'sleep'. It was like a small hole opened in her heart and then slowly got bigger as the years went on until it was nothing but a hollow gap. Yuuko knew she didn't have an actual heart, but she sometimes thought she could hear it very faintly every now and then. _Thump-a…thump-a…thump-a…_

She couldn't hear it anymore after she was put to 'sleep'.

**~8~**

"DIE! Sawada Hideyoshi!" she screamed and flew her fist towards him.

Hide dodged her fruitless attempts to attack him and grabbed her fist in the air.

"Please. Stop," he asked with a pleading look on his face.

"NO!" she screamed and threw her other fist but her arm suddenly became lifeless and fell to her side, this angered her further upon looking at his orange eyes, "You…don't give me that look! Those eyes are the worst!"

**~8~**

Yuuko couldn't remember much from when she was alive, but she did remember a few things. Like a beautiful orange flame that could cut through any type of darkness. And she could remember the coolest and prettiest eyes that almost seemed to glow the same color orange. She remembered the sad and distant look those eyes gave when ever the owner was in a fight, as if the eyes were filled with regret and sorrow.

**~8~**

"You ruined my life!" she screamed.

"Then what do you want!" Hide asked as he dodged more attacks.

"I want-" she began and the stopped, Hide was cautious as to whether or not her body decided to stop but her mouth was still moving as if she was saying speechless words.

"What?" Hide questioned as she fell on top of him, the sprinkler above started to lighten on its downpour of rain until it completely stopped.

She said it again, then her black hair became a straw yellow color and her eyes went from onyx to a musty brown before they closed, and soon the body was swept up like dust in a vacuum as it was sucked into a small orange cube that was lying somewhere on the ground. The flame on Hide's forehead extinguished itself and his Boots changed back into normal white cowboy boots.

"What…?" Hide looked utterly confused as he tried to figure what just happened.

There was groan and he turned around to see his friends slowly getting up and yawning. They were all rubbing their heads as if they had a horrible migraine and seemed to be caught a little off balance when they stood up. Water dripped off their clothes and hair, which being cold and wet at the same time probably didn't help.

"Ugh, my head…" Hanabi groaned as she clutched her head tightly.

"Wow…what happened? Why are we wet?" said Suzuki as he blinked a few times and glanced around the room, "Hide!"

He ran over to his friend and asked worriedly, "Hide, are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm-" Hide was interrupted when a shock wave of pain from every part of his body hit him suddenly, "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Why does it feel like I have a giant cramp all over my body!"

"The Rebuke Bullet can put a lot of stress on your body, it's no wonder if one of the after-effects are cramps," Reborn stated, "Your grandfather passed out the first time it happened to him."

"That's probably better than right now!" the boy yelled in pain.

"Twelfth are you alright!" Hanabi ran over to her beloved Boss and started shaking him for no reason.

"That's not helping Gokudera-san!" he yelped as he was shaken violently.

"Hey, scary girl, I think shaking him isn't helping," Morita said cautiously.

"I agree!" Hide yelped.

Hanabi let go of her Boss, much to Hide's relief, and Morita asked, "What happened to this place? It looks like something exploded in here."

It did look like something had exploded, the hole in the wall where Hide had made when he was thrown into there was still gaping widely, and there were dents and burnt marks all over the place. Hide's clothes were a bit torn and scorched with burn marks, not to mention drenched with water, and the ice on his hand was still there and didn't look like it was going to go away.

"Gak!" Hide took no time in noticing this though since the cramps suddenly became so bad that he was instantly KO'd when Hanabi let go of him.

**~8~**

_A week later…_

A week soon passed, Hide came back to the underground base again. Reborn had told him that there were some things he wanted that were still down here and told Hide to call one of his friends to help.

He walked down to the control room cautiously, in case he fell in another hole, and upon entering his room he unconsciously grabbed his arm cast. He had broken an arm in the fight apparently, he also gained a black eye but that was near healing and was barely noticeable now. He remembered his mother having a fuss when he arrived at the hospital, but his gramps had been there to talk her down and tell her that he gained the broken arm from an accident at the restaurant. She wasn't really happy with this and almost didn't even believe it, but Hide's prayers must have reached _something_ up there because she did believe it, plus this lie was much better than the truth.

Hide walked forwards into the control room and looked around. It was in the same condition as the week before. He finally spotted what Reborn wanted and from inside here and put it in the cardboard box that he was carrying along with a few other things.

As he filled the box up, he glanced down when he heard some glass crack under his feet. A fallen picture frame was under his shoe, it probably fell during the fight, Hide concluded. He glanced around the room again until his eyes fell on the large computer before him and the long keyboard that was underneath it.

When he heard someone walk in Hide decided to ask, "Was she ever real Reborn?"

"No, she was not real, she was never real," Reborn lied, nonetheless Hide decided to believe him, "Hide, the Tsukamoto is a type of computer that is widely used within the Mafia, especially the Vongola. There are Tsukamoto phones, computers, screens, and other electronics, this whole place is a Tsukamoto Computer. Run by and watched over by one of the first Tsukamoto Computers built over thirty-five years ago.

"You have heard of the recent sunspots right? Those probably sent out a magnetic current into this long forgotten place and short-circuited some stuff, making the whole system think it was a person from the beginning. The Computer chose that image because it was an extremely normal and plain face."

Hide was quiet for a little while before mumbling, "She looked so real though...and so sad…"

"She was a very advanced computer," Reborn said before leaving the room.

He was left alone in the room, he kicked the ground and sighed, "Why do I get the feeling that this was all done for nothing then? That is was all just some bad circuitry or some bad story."

"They don't fight for nothing, Hide-sama," a voice resonated inside Hide's head, he glanced around and saw the faint, ghostly image of a black-haired girl in a pure white dress, "They fight because they want to protect you, just like you fight because you want to protect them."

"W-what…?" Hide rubbed his eyes and blinked, the girl was gone.

"What are you staring at?" Reborn asked at the door.

He looked around the room again and said warily, "Nothing, I'm just tired."

"Then let's get out of here!" Morita called and left the room.

The blonde nodded and headed out of the room, but he hesitated at the door for a moment as if he had forgotten something and swept his caramel eyes around the control room. Hide smiled a little at the room before leaving. The main lights turned off as soon as he closed the door, the humming of the large computer stopped and all that was left in the room was a recollection of old memories and a broken picture frame that was lying on the ground.

**~8~**

If you had been in that room at that moment, then you probably would have turned on a flashlight or something because it was dark in there. And if you had examined the picture frame that was lying on the ground, then you would have seen a collection of people in the photo, and the names of those people etched into the bottom of the frame starting from left to right. Sasagawa Ryohei, Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi, Sawada Tsunayoshi, Chrome Dokuro, Rokudo Mukuro, Hibari Kyoya, and Tsukamoto Yuuko. And if you had looked at the large computer, then you probably would have noticed in bold capital letters at the bottom right edge: TSUKAMOTO V1.

And if you _had_ been there, then maybe you could have heard the whispers of long ago memories that were filled with laughter and yelling and general happiness. If you had been there, then maybe you could have seen the ghostly image of a dark-haired woman in a pure white dress staring up at the computer. And if she had seen you, she would smile at you and say:

"Don't worry about it kid, I'll move on," she would clasp her hands together and say quietly with a peaceful look on her face, "I think I realize now that I won't be alone anymore, as long as I get to watch over those that are around me I won't be alone."

Then the woman would smile at you and wave at you before walking towards the computer, where she would slowly fade into it. And then the room would finally have the feeling of pure lifelessness that it seemed to be trying to achieve and the feeling of something that was accomplished. Then you would leave the room and look back, just to check if the apparition would show up, but it didn't. Then the door would close behind you, and the base would be abandoned again. The memories that were formed in that base, like nocturnal animals, would hide in the darkness.

If you had been there of course.

**~8~**

**Wow…finally got this arc done, YEESSS! I'm a little proud of myself for getting this far into the story, and I would like to thank all my readers for helping me along as well. Your wonderful reviews and critiques helped me along through stressful times and brightened my day each time I saw a new one. I hope you guys liked this arc and will continue to read Skywards **

**I would like to clarify some stuff though, just because I'm nit-picky:**

**-Yuuko was real; Reborn lied to Hide so that he would not feel guilty afterwards for beating a person up, 'cause Hide's such a wimp that way. And for those of you that couldn't tell, that was the ghost of Yuuko in the last part of the chapter ;)**

**-Tsuna and co. did not actually appear in this arc, they only made appearances in flashbacks and the such like**

**-The God Boxes were all poorly well-presented symbols of Yuuko's feelings: Frustration (Nyx), Cowardice (Morpheus), Curiosity (Poseidon before being fixed), Fear (Poseidon after being fixed), Anger (Raphael), Insanity (Loki), and Loneliness (Amaterasu)**

**-And also, I have realized that people did not know which Box belonged to who so in order of appearance: Loki - Gokudera, Raphael - Lambo, Nyx - Hibari, Poseidon - Yamamoto, Morpheus – Mukuro/Chrome, Amaterasu – Tsuna. No Sun God Box for Ryohei though, I dunno maybe I'll make mention of it later on in the story, but that's for another day's chapter.**


	27. Ch 27: Hospital Blues

**After a one week break, I give you a very special chapter of Skywards! Filled with music, dangerous missions, hilarious if not mildly funny shenanigans, thrilling adventures, and romantic sunsets!**

**REVIEWER SHOUT-OUTS: Nehszriah, CanadianCookie, KusajishiFuktaicho, and klok755, thanks to you guys I have been able to get this far! :D**

**Enjoy! Oh, and anything with a '*' after it is a note that is explained at the bottom of the chapter.**

**~8~**

Hanabi didn't like hospitals. One of the main reasons that she didn't like them was because she spent a lost of her childhood in them. Another reason was that relatives always came and made her even sicker.

"Poor, poor girl," Rosario wept for her cousin's daughter at the girl's hospital bedside, "You know you shouldn't have been fighting that hard especially with your poor health!"

"A-Auntie Rosario…" Hanabi groaned inwardly.

"Don't worry about a thing, Hanabi!" the woman took her hand and leaned in closer, which did not help the girl one bit, "I won't leave your side for one minute!"

"Ugh…"

"I really don't see why she's acting like this," said a nurse that was passing by, "All she had was a broken nose, and nothing else seems to be wrong with her."

"She's always been weak like this ever since she was a child," said Rosario dramatically, "Poor, _poor_ girl!"

"H-Help me…" Hanabi said weakly as she lifted a quaking hand at the nurse.

"Don't worry Hanabi! Help will always be here for you!"

"My, what a sweet family," the nurse smiled and nodded before leaving the hospital room.

"Could you please keep it down over there? Some of us are trying to sleep," someone said from behind a blue curtain that hid the patient next to Hanabi, it was then pulled aside by its occupant and had revealed Anna with a neck brace on.

"Sorry, Ms. Grandhart," Rosario apologized and turned back to Hanabi, "Oh yes, speaking of family, I called your dad and grandfather and told them about what happened to you."

"You did _what_!" Hanabi gawked and then felt the overwhelming urge to vomit, "I don't want them to see me like this!"

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Hanabi," the woman said dismissively as she started peeling an apple from a basket of fruit she had brought, "Your father said he wouldn't be able to make it, but Gokudera-oji said that he would get on the first plane to Japan! Isn't that great?"

Hanabi then quickly turned around and threw up.

"Oh no! I'll go get a nurse!" Rosario stated and swiftly left the room, making Hanabi feel much, _much_ better.

Anna didn't look up from the book she was reading the entire time and asked, "You planned that, didn't you?"

"Yes and no," Hanabi replied while wiping her mouth, "I've been around Auntie Rosario and Auntie Bianchi so much that throwing up is second-nature to me."

"That doesn't seem like a good thing," a voice said worriedly, Hide was standing at the doorway with a basket of fruit in one hand and his arm in a sling.

"T-Twelfth!" Hanabi went bright red upon her Boss entering the room, "I'm sorry you had to see such a disgusting and vile thing! Please forgive me!"

"You don't have to get out of your bed, Gokudera-san!" Hide said hurriedly upon seeing that the bomber was about to get out of her bed just to bow down to him, "I forgive you already!"

"I'm not worthy!" she cried out dramatically.

"Ignore her, Boss," said Anna coolly as she turned the page of her book, "A Smoking Bomb is a Smoking Bomb."

"I don't even smoke, dammit!" Hanabi yelled at her.

"Could you guys please just calm down!" Hide sighed and held up another basket of fruit to accompany the various others that were in their room, "I brought you guys something."

"Thank you for your consideration, Boss," Anna nodded politely.

"I don't deserve it, Twelfth!" Hanabi cried out dramatically.

"I'll just put it here then," Hide ignored the 'Boss' and 'Twelfth' comments and put the basket on a table that out in the corner.

"Excuse my ignorance, Boss, but have you gone to see my brother yet?" the blonde haired girl asked, "I heard he was in bad condition."

"I saw Adam yesterday," he replied, "He's in the same room as Morita-kun. And he's fine, just a few bandages and he lost a lot of blood."

"Well then," Anna stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "I'm glad we're twins and have the same blood type."

"What about your hands?" Hide asked while pointing at them.

"You mean these?" she asked calmly, she put down her book and held up two balls of adhesive that made her hands look like they belonged to some cartoon character, "The doctors said my nails will start growing back in a week."

_Why are you so calm about that!_ Hide stared in horror and said out loud, "I'll just go and see how Adam and Morita-kun are doing then…"

"Thank you for visiting us, Boss," Anna nodded at him.

"It was an honor having you here, Twelfth!" Hanabi bowed, or at least tried to do a bow while still in bed.

Hide sighed hopelessly and entered the room that was next to the girls' room, upon entering the room he heard a strange racket coming from inside…and the sounds of a twanging guitar.

"Will you _please_ stop playing that guitar!" he heard Morita yell, Hide opened the door and saw Suzuki sitting in a chair with a guitar in his lap in front of Adam and Morita's hospital bed, the boy looked up from his guitar and waved when he saw Hide.

"Yo, Hide!" he said gleefully, "I was just about to play these guys a song on my guitar!" he then looked down at his guitar doubtfully and muttered, "Once I tuned it that is, haven't really played it in a while…"

"Suzuki, aren't you tone deaf?" Hide asked.

"That didn't stop Beethoven!"

"I thought Beethoven was just deaf," Morita pointed out.

"That gives me the advantage then!" he laughed.

"Why don't you give it here?" Adam suggested, he was almost covered in bandages from head to toe and his arm was in a cast but his fingers were wiggling free, "I'm _not_ tone deaf."

"Okay then!" Suzuki got up and handed the guitar to the foreigner who plucked at the thickest string and tightened and loosened it until it sounded just right, then he held down the string next to it and play the two together and tightened and loosened that string, he did the same for all the other strings and handed it to Suzuki.

The tone deaf baseball player strummed at the strings and brightened, "That sounds just right! Thanks Adam!"

"Not a problem, Anna used to be a huge piano fanatic," he said and lied back on his bed.

"Cool! Now then, what do you guys want to hear?" Suzuki asked cheerfully.

"Can a tone deaf musician play an actual instrument?" Morita asked.

"Hmm…I don't think I know that one…" the raven-haired boy said doubtfully.

"He's asking a question, Suzuki, not a suggesting a song," Hide sighed, "And Suzuki's actually pretty good with a guitar."

"Yup! As long as you know the chords, you're good!" he said happily and stared back down at the acoustic guitar, "And this is one of the _old _ones too, not those electronic ones where you can just press a button and it'll play the cord for you or you can change the sound of the instrument from electric to acoustic guitar! You need finger strength and calluses for this!"

Suzuki then began to play a song. It was an old song from half a century ago that Hide remembered his gramps playing it on the radio before and him explaining that it was once very popular all over the world. It was a very simple and easy song, and you could find yourself clapping the beat out even though it was just the guitar that was playing.

The song ended with a single strum of the guitar, to which Morita's mouth hung open in shock and amazement.

"You're _tone deaf_?" he struggled to ask.

"Yup, but my mom's a musician and she taught me how to play the guitar when I was little," Suzuki said cheerfully and strummed the guitar again, "Anyone wanna hear anything else?"

"Um, I'm sorry," a nurse opened the door meekly with a pleading look on her face, "I'm sorry, but could you all keep it down in here? Some of the patients are trying to sleep, and the head nurse doesn't like loud sounds going on."

"Okay, sorry about that," Suzuki rubbed his head sheepishly and gave a careless grin.

"Just turn the volume on it down, okay?" the nurse asked before leaving.

Once she left Suzuki sighed and looked down on his guitar, "That's another problem with those electronic guitars! Everything has a volume switch on it!"

"That's just the way things are, Suzuki," Hide shrugged for his friend, he then looked over at the patients in the room and asked, "How are you guys feeling?"

"Fine, my hands were just a little burned," Morita grumbled and folded his arms together, "The doctors said I couldn't box or anything until they healed up! But, man, when those nurses found out that I snuck out of the hospital the other day to help you move some boxes, boy were they mad!"

"At least you get to leave the bed!" Adam said jokingly, "Those docs won't let me leave their sight for a second!"

"Well you did sort of render your arm useless there, Adam," Hide pointed out.

"Oh _sure_ just 'cause I had dislocated my shoulder for five hours!" the foreign boy rolled his eyes.

"Of course," said a horribly familiar squeaky voice, Hide felt the color drain from his face upon hearing it, "Having a joint dislocated that long can be bad for your body."

He turned around and saw Reborn in a pink nurse's outfit, complete with a pink nurse's hat of course, and a giant needle that was the size of his head.

"Haha! Heya there, Nurse Reborn!" Suzuki laughed upon seeing the small child; he then looked over to Hide and winked, "He sure likes playing 'pretend' doesn't he?"

_No, Suzuki, he's not pretending at all…_Hide gaped.

"Yeah, well I have things to be doing," Adam frowned and asked Hide, "Hey Boss, have you seen my sis yet? I heard her hands aren't doing all that great."

"Yeah, the doctors said her nails will start growing back next week," the boy answered

"Wow, that bad, huh?" Adam whistled impressively and asked, "Is she doing okay? She's not, I don't know, acting weirdly is she?"

"No," he shook his head, "When I was there, she was reading a book."

"That's good," the brother said thoughtfully and nodded to himself.

Reborn walked over to Suzuki and looked at his guitar for a few seconds before asking, "Can you play this, Suzuki?"

"Hm?" the boy looked down at the child and nodded, "Yup! Do you want me to play a song for you kiddo?"

The tutor thought about this and nodded, "Yes, play for me: 'Going Off The Deep End' by Score Twenty*****."

"You mean that new song that just came out last week?" Hide asked.

"I don't listen to the radio much, unless it's at work, Reborn," Suzuki said sheepishly, "Do you have another song you like?"

"Very well then, play 'Falling Down'** _you_ should know that one, right?" Reborn said expectantly.

"Reborn!" Hide hissed but his attempt to quiet the baby was ignored.

"Eh?" Suzuki blinked and grinned, "You mean you know? Heh, I thought I only told Hide and the old man that!"

"What?" Morita asked, "What are you talking about?"

"My mom!" the boy grinned and shrugged, "No use keeping it a secret now, my mom's probably what you would call an 'Idol'."

"Your mom?" Adam questioned and then two clueless boys in the room quietly thought about it, "Mom…Suzuki…"

"Hm…'Falling Down'…" Morita thought, then his eyes widened and he yelped, "Suzuki! As in 'Suzuki Shigure'? The number one hit idol in Japan!"

"That's her!" Suzuki nodded enthusiastically, "Hide's mom and my mom were best friends in middle school, its only fair that _we're_ best friends also!"

"Wow…I know someone famous," Morita gaped.

"That's pretty cool…" said Adam, who was strangely speechless, "How come you don't tell anyone that your mom is Suzuki Shigure? Isn't that something to be bragged about?"

"Well duh! If I told _everybody_, I wouldn't be able to play baseball or go to the same school as Hide!" Suzuki laughed as he pointed this out, he then gripped his guitar and smiled at Reborn, "So, 'Falling Down' right?"

"That's right," the infant nodded, "I'm a bit of a fan of that song."

"Okay then!" the boy nodded and started playing it.

While he played the number one hit song, Hide bent down to Reborn and whispered, "Reborn! What was that for? Suzuki doesn't like other people to know about his family!"

"With this, your Family has become one step closer with each other," the infant stated.

"It's always 'Family'-this and 'Family'-that with you, isn't it?" Hide muttered reluctantly.

"Because Family is important, now shut up I'm listening to the song."

"_But sometimes, you just have to fall down,_

_To realize what is all around…"_

Suzuki finished the song, and this time there was applause from the doorway as nurses were crying after overhearing the song from outside.

"That was so beautiful!" one of the larger nurses blubbered and then blew noisily into a tissue.

"I just want to take this musical prodigy home with me!" another nurse cried, what was creepy about it was that it was a male nurse.

"That song was the story of my life!" another nurse cried out, Hide could have sworn that this was the head nurse in the hospital that said this.

"Then you should all buy Suzuki Shigure's newest album, 'Teardrops In The Sky'!" said Suzuki cheerfully.

"Shigure-chan wrote this? No wonder! The girl's so talented!" a nurse wailed, pretty soon all the nurses dispersed and/or went off to buy a copy of the album.

Hide gave his friend a surprised look to which the boy innocently shrugged and said, "What? This counts as helping my mom out, doesn't it?"

After Suzuki was done with shamelessly plugging his mother's own pop star album, both he and Hide walked about the hospital, since Adam couldn't walk and the nurses were still angry at Morita, despite Suzuki's performance. They explored and visited students that had been apart of the recent…event that had happened. Including the boxing team where Megumi was rushing around the place in order to get the hospital release dates on the team members and assign them special training.

"Hey, Hide!" Suzuki elbowed his friend, "That's the girl you like, right?"

"Sssh!" the boy whispered as Megumi came up to them.

"Hide-kun! What a surprise!" she said happily, "Did you come here to visit Morita-kun?"

"We already did," Hide grinned, "We just came by here to visit the team for him."

"Ugh, that boy!" Megumi rolled her eyes and sighed, "I heard he snuck out again and had to be dragged back over here!"

_If she knows it was me that called him, then she'll get mad at me…_Hide thought.

"Hide was that one that called him to get out of the hospital," said Reborn from out of no where, he was now wearing a doctor's coat plus stethoscope.

"Reborn!" Hide gawked, _You betrayer!_

"You did Hide-kun?" Megumi looked shocked as well, "Why would you do that?"

"Uh, um," the boy shifted his eyes around the room nervously and then felt an arm swing around his shoulder.

"Hide, here, was worried about Sakuraba not being able to move around much in a hospital bed," said Suzuki confidently, "So he called the guy up and asked him if he wanted to go with us to help move some boxes for the little guy here! Staying in a bed for a long time can be pretty bad for you, ya know, blood clots develop, next thing you know: _bam!_ Heart attack."

"Wha-?"

"I'm Suzuki, by the way, Suzuki Kouhei!" the baseball player held out a welcoming hand to which Megumi took it uncertainly.

"Oh, well…if that's the case then…okay?" she said while completely confused, but this was a whole lot better than her being angry or sad. And the best part was that it was technically true, so Hide wasn't lying to her nor would Reborn be able to get in the way.

"I think I know you, right? Suzuki-kun?" Megumi asked, "You're in class 1-B right? Same year as us?"

"That's correct!" he nodded.

"So you're the baseball player, then right?" she asked cheerily.

"Haha, yeah!" he nodded again proudly, "Wish I could be your class you guys, I liked the way they were doing it all by alphabetical order last year. Now it's all crazy and mixed up!"

"Hmm, maybe I can arrange something then?" Reborn wondered aloud, "I know the principal of the school, and he owes me a few favors. No harm in calling him up and asking him rearrange your classes a little…"

"Really Reborn-kun?" asked Megumi.

"Yup," he nodded, at this point Hide knelt down to the infant and whispered:

"You _seriously_ personally know the principal of our school? And you're also going to let it be so that we all have a class together?"

"Sure, Hibari owes me a couple of favors," the infant said, "Plus this will allow your family to grow a tight-knit bond with each other by being in a closer environment."

"Why do I feel like there are very thick strings attached to this deal?" Hide groaned.

"There aren't," the infant said and then reminded Hide, "But you still have the rest of the summer to enjoy, I'll take care of this."

Hide was a little bit relieved but then froze up and asked, "Wait, what do you mean by 'relax'? Aren't we going to do more training?"

"No, the worst has passed for now, I'll allow you to rest for a while before making you start up training again," the infant said passively, but then held up Leon to Hide's face and said, "But if you're even just a little bit weaker than you are now, don't expect me to go easy on you."

_Now _that_ sounds more like the Reborn I know_, Hide thought, half-relieved and half-scared out of his wits.

"Hey, look it's the underwear guy and Suzuki!" yelled one of the boxing team members, the others all sat up from their beds to try to get a glimpse of the two.

"Th-they're all looking at us," Hide mumbled as he felt shyness coming onto him, but Suzuki, being Suzuki, walked over to the center of the beds with his guitar and said cheerfully, "Hey you guys! Want to listen to a song?"

"Wow! They came here just cheer us up?" said a boxer with amazement.

"What great guys!"

"Sure, play us a song, Suzuki!"

"Is Sawada going to sing or play drums? Haha!"

"Sawada can sing? Cool!"

"The underwear-guy is amazing!"

…and that was how the rumor started that Hide could sing, even though he didn't even speak a word to them. Hide gawked in amazement at how quickly they all began to believe that he had musical talent. _They think I can sing now!_ he thought.

"Wow, Hide-kun, I didn't know you were in a band with Suzuki-kun!" said Megumi in awe.

_Megumi-chan believes it too!_ he gaped, _And now everyone thinks I'm in a band!_

"What instrument do you play?" she continued to ask, "Is it drums? Or are you the singer?"

"Uh, Megumi-san, I'm actually not-" he began but was interrupted when Suzuki swung an arm around him again.

"He's the pianist!" he said brightly.

"Eh? No I'm no-"

"Wow! Piano, huh?" Megumi brightened, "I used to play piano when I was little but I never could get the hang of it! You must be great at it, right Hide-kun?"

"Actually, I-"

"Are you kidding? He's the greatest!" Suzuki laughed, Hide could tell that the boy was having fun with this, "I remember when we were kids, he played Mozart and Beethoven all the time!"

_That was at a recital and you were asleep the whole time_, Hide remembered.

"Eh? Really?" the red-head chirped, "You _have_ to play for me some time, Hide-kun!"

"S-sure?" Hide nodded uncertainly, but he was still happy.

"Hey! I thought I told you kids to be quiet!" a nurse yelled at the doorway, she then noticed Hide and Suzuki and brightened, "Oh! Aren't you boys the ones that played that song by Shigure? Are you going to play another?"

"Sure they were!" whooped a boxer from his bed, the others started cheering and clapping and yelling out suggestions.

"Quiet down, you brats!" the nurse yelled and then turned back at Suzuki and Hide sweetly, "Could you play this one song, and then you can just be on your own way."

"Sure!" Suzuki nodded and hefted his guitar up to his chest, "What do you want to listen to?"

"Well, I don't know if you know this one, but it used to be played all the time on the radio when I was kid," she began, "It's called, um, 'Hey There Delilah."

"Is that the one by The Plain White T's******* or the newer version?" he asked.

"The what?"

"Never mind," he shook his head, "I know what you're talking about."

He started plucking at a few chords for a while before finally getting into the song. It was at a much quicker pace and slowed down a lot before picking up the pace again, but the nurse didn't seem to mind as she listened to it. Hide couldn't help but notice that Suzuki wasn't so much into this song because there wasn't as much feeling in it. He finished the song and the nurse clapped with delight.

"Oh, thank you _so_ much!"

"Not a problem," he said cheerfully.

"Well, visiting hours are almost done with," the nurse said while tapping her chin thoughtfully, "But I'll tell you what, I'll let you guys stay here a little bit longer in time for the sunset on the roof. It's absolutely gorgeous, trust me!"

"Thanks, nurse!"

"Yeah thanks!" the boys waved as the nurse said good bye to them.

"That's pretty neat!" said Megumi, "I wonder if we can take Morita and Hanabi-chan up there!"

"Let see if we can get those Grandhart twins to come too!" said Suzuki excitedly.

"That's a good idea," said Reborn from somewhere nobody could see him, a ceiling tile moved back and the baby descended in a black leotard and with his arms and legs outstretched like the spies in spy movies, "It's a good chance to practice your sneaking skills."

"Reborn, we were invited to go to the roof," Hide pointed out, "It's not exactly 'sneaking' if we were already invited."

"Yes, but the others weren't," Reborn pointed out, "Remember? Sakuraba and Adam both said that the nurses and doctors wouldn't let them leave their room, and Rosario is keeping watch over Hanabi like a hawk."

"How exciting!" said Megumi clapped her hands together cheerfully, "This sounds like a fun game!"

"Game?" Suzuki perked up at hearing the word, "If it's a game, then count me in!"

"Yes, the game's called: Get everyone to the roof without being caught," said Reborn as he explained the rules of the game without Hide's consent, "The rules are to get Adam, Sakuraba, Hanabi, and Anna up to the roof without being caught by the nurses, doctors, or Rosario."

"Right!" they said in unison.

_How did this become a game…?_ Hide grumbled to himself.

**~8~**

Suzuki peered out from behind the door and snuck into the Hanabi and Anna's hospital room. Hanabi had fallen fast asleep from exhaustion for having Rosario around her too much, but Anna was wide awake.

"What are you doing?" she asked as Suzuki tip-toed his way into the room with two folded-up wheelchairs.

"We haven't actually met, have we?" the boy grinned as he greeted the girl, "My name's Suzuki Kouhei, I'm Hide's friend. You must be the Grandhart-sister."

"Anna," she said flatly, "That's not the answer to the question I was asking."

"Well, the nurse let me, Hide, and Tanaka-san stay after visiting hours so we could go see the sunset on the roof," Suzuki explained, "I'm helping Hide and Tanaka-san get you guys up to the roof also without getting caught."

"I doubt Rosario will let you guys do that," said Anna, "At least not for Smoking Bomb over there, visiting hours aren't over yet after all. I also doubt that Smoking Bomb will let you guide her to the roof."

The baseball player then grinned ear to ear and held a finger to his mouth, "That's why I'm doing it while she's asleep!"

"That's the most idiotic thing in the world," the girl stated.

"Wow, you're a huge downer compared to your brother!" he laughed quietly and unfolded the wheelchairs, once he was done stood next to one of them and grinned, "After you, malady!"

"Help me," she said as she started to stand up, "My sense of balance is still off since I broke my collarbone."

"Okay then," Suzuki walked over to her and helped Anna into the wheelchair, he then went over to Hanabi and picked her up bridal-style and set her down in another wheelchair. Had the girl been awake at that moment, she would have punched Suzuki in the face.

"Hanabi, I brought some magazines from the giftshop!" Rosario's voice came from outside.

"Look who's coming," Anna pointed out.

"Oh no!" Suzuki flinched.

"Hanabi, look I got the limited-edition of-Oh, Suzuki, right?" Rosario was surprised to see the boy in the room with Anna in the wheelchair.

"Heya there Miss Rosario!" he waved to her as he began to stroll out of the room while leading Anna's wheelchair.

"Where are you guys going?" she asked.

"To the roof," Suzuki answered, "The nurse said that Hide and I could stay to watch the sunset on the roof and we thought it would be great if we could get everyone up there."

"You're not taking Hanabi?" Rosario questioned she looked over to the bed and saw Hanabi's sleeping form and her snow-white hair sticking out.

"No, she's dead tired," Suzuki shook his head and shrugged, "She wouldn't wake up no matter what and told us to go away when we actually did."

"She must be! She's probably exhausted from her illness," Rosario nodded and then waved to the teens, "Well, have a good time up there, watching the sunset and all."

"We will!" he said and quickly left.

**~8~**

As Suzuki rolled the wheelchair onwards, he stopped by the staircase and procured another nearby wheelchair. He helped Anna into it and pulled off the blanket she was sitting on. Hanabi was still sound asleep in the wheelchair.

"Wow, she's _is_ dead tired isn't she?" he whistled impressively.

"That was pretty quick thinking," Anna mused, "Hiding Smoking Bomb under that blanket and putting me on top of her."

"Heh, not really," Suzuki grinned sheepishly, "It wouldn't have worked if that old mop wasn't there."

**~8~**

"Hm? Hanabi's bed looks a little damp," Rosario noticed as she felt the cold, wet pillow that the mop's head was lying on, "She must be sad that she couldn't go up to the roof with the young Twelfth and his friends. But she needs to stay in bed and get better."

**~8~**

"We need a distraction," Megumi whispered as she watched Morita and Adam's room from the outside, it was right in front of the Nurses Station where nurses were constantly walking around and checking in.

"How are we going to distract them?" Hide whispered back to her.

"Oh look, it's the little friend of that music-boy!" squealed one of the nurses when she saw Hide.

"Wha-huh?" he questioned as the nurse then grabbed him at startling speed.

"Good thinking Hide-kun! You distract them!" Megumi gave him a thumbs-up and ran off to the boys' room.

"What? Megumi-san?" he paled.

"Can you play an instrument too, little boy?" asked one of the nurses as they all started crowding around him.

"I-Instrument? Uh, the piano, I guess?" he said uncertainly.

"You must be in a band with the music-boy, right?" another nurse said cheerily, "Can you play a song for us?"

"Do you play guitar too?"

"Why don't you play a song on the guitar?"

"I can't play the guitar _now_!" Hide shook his head quickly and pointed to the cast on his arm, "My arm's broken!"

"Then why not on the piano?"

"Yeah! Does anyone have a keyboard?"

"There's one in pediatrics!"

Pretty soon a keyboard was procured for Hide. Granted, it looked exactly like a computer's keyboard, but this was one of the _new_ models of piano that had as many keys as a large grand piano but was the same size and looked exactly like a keyboard. But like most instruments, there are certain ways to play the instrument and that was one of the flaws of this 'keyboard', it couldn't be played easily by an amateur nor by anyone with a cast.

"Uh, I only played the large pianos before," Hide said doubtfully.

"Really? Those big, ancient things?" a nurse asked critically.

"Yeah, they're much easier to play than this one…" he said.

"Well the keys are all named on the buttons! You can play it, can't you?"

"I guess…" he creased his eyebrows, "Hold on…"

He played the key that was labled 'Mid C' and played a few more keys around it. _I can't believe my mom actually put me in piano lessons when I was a kid…_Hide grumbled to himself and then added on a slightly more positive note, _well…it _was_ normal for a kid, and the piano is as normal as instruments go…_

"See? It already sounds like music!" said a nurse with delight.

"He's so talented! Like that boy he was with earlier!"

_No, I'm just playing random keys, lady!_ Hide grimaced, he tried to take a peek at the door where Morita and Adam's room was and saw Megumi coming out of it with Adam in a wheelchair and Morita behind her. She gave him another thumbs-up, meaning that it was time to leave and get everyone to the roof.

"Oh, look at the time! It seems like it's almost time for the sunset!" Hide exclaimed while looking at an imaginary watch on his wrist and then running away from the crowd of nurses.

"Good job, Hide-kun!" said Megumi brightly when the boy caught up to them, "What was that song you were playing?"

"Just random keys," he said meekly.

"'Just Random Keys'? I don't think I know that one," she said thoughtfully, Hide thought it was absolutely adorable when she said this and almost melted in his shoes.

"Good thinking Boss!" Adam interjected his Boss's wonderful daydream, "Distracting the nurses and getting us to the roof like this!"

"Yeah, Hide!" Morita nodded, "This was a great idea too, going up to the roof."

"Well, it was sort of Reborn's idea…" Hide said meekly.

"What are you kids doing!" someone barked at them, they turned around and saw a doctor down the hallway that was staring straight at them rather angrily.

"Run!" Morita yelled and they all started running away from the doctor, except for Adam who was stuck in the wheelchair and had Hide pushing him.

"Oh no you don't!" the doctor ended up being faster and caught Hide's shirt collar and pulled the boy back.

"Hide!"

"Hide-kun!" the teens stopped in their tracks and looked back at their caught friend.

"You kids get back in your rooms!" the doctor yelled and then looked at the boy he had caught, "And as for you…"

"Go to the roof with your Dying Will," Hide heard, he also heard a gunshot but no one else seemed to hear it though. Next thing Hide knew, he was dangling by his shirt collar unconscious.

"H-Hey, kid are you alright?' the doctor asked nervously when he noticed the boy go limp.

No, Hide was not alright. He wanted to go up to the roof, to see fireworks with his friends. He wanted to spend more time with them before he died. If only he was faster than the doctor…if only…

Then suddenly Hide burst out of his clothes and yelled, "GET TO THE ROOF WITH MY DYING WILL!"

He grabbed the wheelchair Adam was in while scooping up Megumi and Morita into it, and then started to make a mad dash to the roof. The doctor stood silent for a few seconds and looked at the piece of cloth in his hand that was once Hide's shirt.

"That was…" he began quietly and then got all hyped up, "so cool! I've never seen such active youth in my life! Reminds me of when I was young!"

The doctor then sighed reminiscently and went about his duties of being a doctor, "I'll let those kids slide," he said, "It looks like they really wanted to go to the roof anyways."

**~8~**

Meanwhile, Hide ran around the hospital until he found some stairs, and then he picked up the wheelchair and carried everybody that was in it up the stairs, despite the pain that was probably coming from his broken arm. Adam, Morita, and Megumi were all screaming their heads off at suddenly being carried away by a very clothes-less Hide.

"THE ROOF! THE ROOF! THE ROOF!" the boy roared.

"AAAAAH!" they screamed.

When they finally got to the roof, Hide set them down gently and an off to one side yelling triumphantly, "WE GOT TO THE ROOF!" before fainting.

"I-I think I'm going to throw up…" Morita groaned as he shakily got out of the wheelchair and onto ground, he had never been so happy to see it.

"I need to sit down for a few seconds…" said Megumi weakly as she fell off the chair and collapsed onto the ground.

"Woo-hoo! That was great, Boss!" Adam cheered.

The elevator door that was next to the stairs opened behind them and revealed Suzuki rolling Anna and a still sleeping Hanabi in two wheelchairs. Suzuki quickly took notice about "Look whose here already!"

"Oh man, was that fun!" Adam was still laughing with joy.

"Hm? What was?" Suzuki asked the foreigner then explained what happened, to which Suzuki also started laughing.

"And then he started yelling and screaming! He carried us all the way up here!" he said.

"Really? That's pretty cool of him! Where is he now?"

"Over there," Adam pointed to where the collapsed Hide was.

"Yo, Hide!" Suzuki yelled, the fallen boy got up half-asleep and looked around.

"Huh? What?" he asked sleepily.

"Your in your underwear again, man?" Suzuki grinned.

"What?" Hide looked down at his body and gawked, "I'm in my underwear!"

"Heck yeah you are!" the baseball player laughed.

"No-I mean-uh, where's Megumi-san?" he asked cautiously.

"Curled up in a ball crying."

"What!' he snapped his head up and looked around to try and see Megumi.

"Just kidding, just kidding," Suzuki laughed at his best friend's expression, "She's fine, look, the sunset's starting."

Hide looked at the glowing orange sun that was starting to sink slowly into the horizon, the red sky was lit up around it and the night sky was hovering just above it. The river in front of the Namimori was reflecting the sunset and the red sky. It surely was a sight to see and everybody came over to where Hide was and stood in awe at the sunset.

"Huh? What's happening?" Hide heard Hanabi wake up, but she became quiet as soon as she saw the sunset.

"Wow, this really was a great idea, Hide," said Morita.

"Yeah," Megumi nodded while keeping her eyes on the sunset, Hide couldn't help but notice that the red sky matched her hair.

"Why don't we all listen to a song then?" Reborn suggested, the infant was in his normal clothes now so he didn't ruin the mood, in his hand was Suzuki's guitar.

"That's a great idea little guy!" said Suzuki, he immediately took the guitar and started playing it.

_That _is_ a good idea,_ Hide thought suspiciously, _Is there something wrong with him today?_

"Nope, nothing wrong," Reborn smiled, "You guys need to relax. Oh and Hide, I realized that I've been becoming too soft lately, so I decided to start your training back up again starting tomorrow morning. You'll run two times around Namimori."

_Now _that_ sounds more like the Reborn I know_.

The song finished and everyone applauded Suzuki's efforts. The boy strummed the guitar happily and plucked out a few more notes, "You know, Hide," he began to his friend, "don't you kinda wish that these kinds of moments could last forever?"

Hide was surprised at the sudden question, and then smiled as he turned back to the orange glowing sunset, "Yeah. Kinda."

**~8~**

**Yay for silliness :), and for those of you who are interested the song Suzuki plays on the guitar is 'I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz, whether this song is worldwide known or not is possibly true and possibly not true also. I don't know. But it's a great song, especially for the guitar :D I highly recommend this song to pretty much everyone!**

**Notes:**

***The song and the band are fictional (meaning they don't actually exist, haha :D)**

****"Falling Down" is just a name of a made up song, so are the lyrics which I think are pretty clever if I do say so myself, haha**

*****This song is 'Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's, a _great_** **band that makes _great_ music.** **The 'newer version' Suzuki is talking about is a made-up one I made up because, hey, in a 50 year time span _any _song can get remixed or redone by another person.**

**I still have more to say! So come over to my forum: Just another Forum and check out what I have to say! You can talk on there too about the latest chapters of KHR and more!**


	28. Ch 28: The Case of the Missing Bomb!

**As alluded in my last chapter, this chapter will be very Gokudera-centric, and by Gokudera-centric I mean it will have a lot of Gokuderas in it. **

**REVIEWER SHOUT-OUTS: Neszriah- you rock! KusajishiFuktaicho- I'm starting to believe you are indeed an Absolutely Hopeless Goku-fan, CanadianCookie- thanks for giving me 10 reviews in one sitting! ColinatorGX- That was totally the feeling that I was going for! Thank you all for the awesome reviews!**

**~8~**

'Twas the night before the weekend was over, and all through the Namimori Hospital, not a creature was stirring, not even a nurse. Except…

One hospital room's window slid open and the wind pulled the curtains out of the building so that they billowed out gently. The silhouette of a person came climbing down along the side of the building from the window. The person looked like a young girl with long silver-white hair that shined in the moonlight, she was dressed in a black vest and t-shirt with a red and black plaid skirt.

When she landed on the ground, she glanced around quickly incase anyone was watching her and ran off into the night. She ran around throughout Namimori before she approached an apartment building, then she slowed down to a walk and was about to cross the street towards it when a black car halted in front of her and a window rolled down.

"Hanabi," said the person from inside the car, the identity of that person in the car surprised her.

"You-" she managed to say before being pulled into the car and driven away.

**~8~**

"Alright Hide, today I have a mission for you," Reborn announced after he had kicked Hide out of his bed.

"I'm not doing your crazy dangerous 'missions' anymore, Reborn," he said while trying to get off the floor.

"They aren't that dangerous, the last mission was going to get milk for your dear, sweet mother," the infant said innocently.

"That last 'mission' you sent me on ended with me being chased all over the neighborhood by really big dogs," he said flatly, "If this one ends with me being chased by anything else, I'm not going."

"But this involves Hanabi."

Hide froze and asked Reborn suspiciously, "What about Gokudera-san?"

"Rosario has informed me that Hanabi has been kidnapped," his tutor explained.

The young Vongola Boss fell on the floor laughing and exclaimed, "That's ridiculous! What makes you say _that_, Reborn?"

"She told me that she wasn't in her hospital room this morning and the nurses did not see her leave the hospital at all."

"But Gokudera-san hates being in the same room with Rosario, she probably just escaped the hospital or something," Hide dismissed this with ease.

"That may be so, but apparently Hanabi's landlady was up in the middle of the night and saw her being taken away by a black car," Reborn continued and then took out a disk, "It's all on video tape too."

"Are you serious?" Hide raised a skeptical eyebrow and asked, "Who in the world would want to kidnap Hanabi?"

"Anyone who wants to threaten the Twelfth Vongola by holding hostage his right-hand man, or lady as it were," the infant pointed out.

"She's not even my right-hand man-I mean lady!" Hide yelled in frustration, "I don't even have a right-hand anything!"  
"Sure you do, Hanabi volunteered whole-heartedly for it."

"That's only because she was the first to suggest it!"

"Even so, a proper boss cannot function without a right-hand at his side," Reborn stated, "And if you still don't believe me that Hanabi has been kidnapped, then believe this."

"Believe what?" Hide then got a phone thrown at his face.

"_H-Hello? Um, Mr. Reborn, sir?_" a voice on the phone asked, the phone itself was lying on the ground after being dropped.

"What was that for Reborn!" Hide yelled without thinking about the phone.

"_Hello! Is anyone there?_" the voice asked again.

"Oh!" Hide quickly grabbed the phone and held it up to his ear nervously, "Um, hello?"

"_What? Whose this?_" the voice asked.

"Er, I'm his student?" Hide looked at Reborn unsurely, "My name's Sawada Hideyoshi."

"_Hideyoshi? As in the new Twelfth of Vongola?_" the voice sounded surprised and then suddenly became very polite and formal to Hide, "_I am so sorry, young sir!_"

It sounded like a man, an older man too, and the way he said 'Twelfth' couldn't help but remind Hide of Hanabi.

"Um, you wouldn't happen to be Gokudera-san's dad or something, right?" Hide asked the phone.

"_Dad?-Hanabi?-Oh _god_, no!_" the man on the phone then laughed and said, "_I'm Hanabi's brother, Nagi, Gokudera Nagi. Hahah! That's hilarious, young sir! Me? Her _father_!_"

"Brother? Gokudera-san has a brother?" Hide asked, he had never heard Hanabi ever talk about a brother and had just assumed she was an only child.

"_Yeah, she doesn't really bring me up that often, does she?_" Nagi laughed, "_Well, that doesn't really bother me, have you seen her though? She's not at her home._"

"Have you checked the hospital?" he asked.

"_Hah! No offense, young sir, but my sister isn't likely to stay in a hospital for long!_" Nagi laughed, "_No, I'm afraid she's been kidnapped, no surprise there._"

Hide nearly choked on his spit when he heard this, "What! You even think that!"

"_Well yeah, can't really think of anything else,_" her brother said dismissively and then added, "_I'm counting on you, young sir, to help my sister out!_"

"W-Wait! What?" Hide began but Nagi had already hung up on him, the boy stared blankly at the phone until Reborn kicked him in the gut.

"I've already called Suzuki and Sakuraba to come over," his tutor informed him.

"What about us?" Adam eagerly asked as he crawled out from underneath Hide's bed.

"No, you won't be needed for this," said Reborn.

"That hurts Reborn, being told that we won't be needed," the foreigner whined.

"Complaining will not change Mr. Reborn's mind, Adam," said his sister, Anna, as she slid open Hide's closet door from inside and hopped out of he closet, "Boss and Mr. Reborn may use us as they need to, it's only fair that we don't barge in where we're not needed."

"You get to go Anna."

"Thank you, Mr. Reborn."

In response to this, Adam's mouth fell open and he yelled, "What! Why does she get to go?"

"Because she's smarter than you," the infant stated.

"No way she's smarter than me!" he argued and then said, "I mean sure, she gets better grades, she comes up with better plans, oh, and she makes some pretty nice things every now and then, and…um…what were we talking about?"

"Why are they so weird…" Hide grumbled into the palm of his hand when he slapped his face with it and then quickly realized something, "Wait, why am I already used to you guys appearing in random places?"

**~8~**

"So the scary girl went missing, huh?" Morita questioned while rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "I see…"

"Yeah, I just told you that three times already," Hide nodded.

"Why did she go missing though?" Suzuki asked.

The boys were walking down the streets of Namimori with Anna leading them, she was holding something that was small, square, and black with an antenna on it.

"She probably got lost or something," she muttered.

"Reborn said she was kidnapped," Hide explained again.

"Kidnapped? Is she rich or something?" Suzuki asked.

"Not that I know of," the blonde shrugged and noticed that Anna's antenna was poking out at him, "Anna, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find the Smoking Bomb," she said while keeping her eyes on the square gadget in her hands, "This is a radar that checks for any explosive compounds in the air, it's normally used by the police to find exploding mines and other bombs. I felt it was most fitting for finding the Smoking Bomb."

"Isn't that a little insulting to her?" he asked.

"No, not really."

"Hey guys, this is just something I thought of, but if she was kidnapped, then why don't we go to the place she was kidnapped?" Morita suggested, they were all quiet for a few seconds and then decided to head towards Hanabi's apartment.

As great as the investigation was going for them, the group soon found a dead end in the case when they actually reached Hanabi's apartment building.

"Um, Reborn said that she was kidnapped here," said Hide as he pointed to the street corner that was across the street from the apartments.

"There aren't any tire marks, that means the driver wasn't in any hurry," Anna noted and looked down the street, "I'll go and talk to the landlady."

"Okay, um, what should we do?" Morita asked.

"What do you think, Sherlock?"

The boxer fell silent as the girl turned around and quickly headed towards the building.

"She can be scarier than the scary girl when her brother's not around," the boxer said and then added, "Who's Sherlock anyways?"

"She's probably a little mad because she didn't think of going to the place Gokudera was last at before you did," said Suzuki in his always cheerful manner.

"She didn't tell us what we should be doing though…" Hide muttered.

"Well, Sakuraba-kun, you got us this far, what do you think we should do?" Suzuki asked jokingly.

"That was only just a passing thought," Morita sighed reluctantly, "I'm fresh out of those right now."

"Oh come on!" the raven-haired boy slapped him on the back playfully and grinned, "You gotta have _one_ idea, even if it's a bad one!"

"The only thing I can think of is how in the old cop shows where they dusted for finger prints and stuff," the boxer said thoughtfully and then added triumphantly, "And also checked for clues!"

"Clues to what?"

"Clues to how or why she disappeared, I think," he shrugged and began to look around the place.

Suzuki and Hide looked at each before shrugging and joining in the search as well.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked.

They looked up and saw a girl with long silver hair that was tied up in a ponytail and wearing glasses on her face. She was dressed in a grey sweater and a plain brown skirt that went down to her knees. Hide's mouth fell open in absolute shock when he saw the girl.

"Gokudera-san?" he asked in disbelief.

"T-T-Twelfth!" Hanabi gasped and looked around nervously, her face turned bright red and her glasses fell to the bridge of her nose before she quickly pushed them back up, "Wha-What are you doing here!"

Suzuki looked as shocked as Hide but Morita was the only one on the verge of dying from laughter, "Hahahah! The scary girl looks like a _normal_ girl!"

"Quit laughing you freakin' giant-bastard!" Hanabi growled, "Don't mock me!"

_Why is she taking 'normal' as an insult!_ Hide wondered but said out loud, "Gokudera-san, I thought you were kidnapped!"

"Huh?" she questioned, "Where in the world would you get that idea?"

"Reborn told me! He said you were kidnapped!" the young Boss stated.

"Reborn-san? I'm sorry Twelfth, but that's wrong, there must have been a misunderstanding," she shrugged.

"But-but your brother-?" Hide stammered and was then cut off by Hanabi once she heard the word 'brother'.

"Nagi? Boss, my brother always thinks I've been kidnapped whenever he doesn't know where I am," she said dismissively.

"But what's with those clothes?" asked Suzuki, he was pointing out the fact that she normally wore miniskirts and vests and lots of chains not plain clothes like the ones she was wearing.

"Ugh, my _grandpa_ made me wear these," she grumbled, then she held up a grocery bag and said, "I just went to the grocery store to buy coffee with him."

"Grandpa?" they both questioned, right then an old man dressed in a really nice looking black suit stepped out from behind her.

He was tall, or taller than Morita, and he had silver-white hair that could have either been from old age or could have been natural, seeing as it was the same color as Hanabi's. His hair style was very strange to Hide as well, his hair reached just below his chin and flared outwards making it look like he had an octopus head, and he wore black leather shoes though that had nothing to do with his hair.

You could tell that he and Hanabi were both related because they both had the same annoyed and pissed off look. You could also tell that they were both annoyed and pissed at each other because they kept giving each other annoyed and pissed off looks.

"He caught me in the middle of the night while I was escaping the hospital and put me in these dumb looking clothes," Hanabi rolled her eyes as she explained to Hide, but she was then interrupted when her grandfather grabbed her ear and started pulling it.

"Don't talk to the Twelfth so impolitely!" he scolded her, he released her ear and said, "Now say you're sorry for your rudeness."

"I'm sorry, Twelfth, for my rudeness" she muttered with a hint of reluctance.

"Speak up, Hanabi!"

"I'm sorry, Twelfth, for my rudeness!"

Hide's sweat dropped and he said uncertainly, "Um, it's alright…?"

The elderly man then bowed politely to Hide and said, "I apologize for my granddaughter's insolence, young Twelfth! I also apologize for any trouble she's been bothering you with!"

"I haven't been bothering the Boss at all!" Hanabi tried to argue before her ear was pulled violently again.

"And as for you, young lady!" her grandfather turned back to her, "You are a disgrace, running around with barely any clothes on!"

This seemed to be the last straw for Hanabi as she reached for a deck of her exploding cards but she was shocked when her grandfather held up her deck in his own hands and said, "Are you looking for these? Don't think that I don't know you! And where are your glasses?"

"I was wearing contacts grandpa! Contacts!" she yelled at him while trying to find another deck, "And I was wearing enough clothes!"

"If you call a mini-skirt a piece of clothing!" he scoffed and added, "And you're not old enough to be wearing contacts!"

"Anyone's old enough to wear contacts, you old bastard!" Hanabi folded her arms across her chest in frustration.

"Don't talk to your grandfather that way!" her grandfather pulled at her ear harshly once more.

"Ow! Don't tell me what to do! Ow!"

"Hey, Hide," Suzuki whispered as the grandfather and granddaughter continued to argue, "Isn't it funny how much they are alike?"

"I'm nothing like this bastard!" Hanabi yelled.

"And I'm nothing like this girl!" her grandfather added and then stated, "_I _don't run off to other countries without telling people!"

"I told Nagi!" she argued.

"He said that you were kidnapped!"

"He_ always_ says that I've been kidnapped!"

"Pahahah! She looks _normal_!" Morita was still laughing.

"Quit laughing at me you freakin' giant!" Hanabi yelled at the boxer.

"They're definitely alike," Suzuki nodded to himself in an assuring way.

"We're nothing alike!" they both said in unison.

_Gokudera…_Hide thought in horror, _There are two Gokuderas!_

"If you're going to keep acting like this, then I see no reason in staying here in Japan to look over you!" her grandfather yelled.

Hanabi was taken aback by this statement and said shakily, "W-What?"

"You heard me, young lady!"

"No…" she shook her head in disbelief and turned around to run away while screaming, "No! You're just going to make me train!"

"Oh no you don't!" her grandfather reached out and grabbed her ear again, he pulled it ear to keep her from running away, "I'm not letting you run away again!"

"Like hell I would want to live with you!" she screamed as she threw her own little fit, her grandpa seemed to have an iron grip on her ear.

"Don't swear in front of your elders!" he scolded again.

"Um, isn't this going too far?" Hide asked.

They both stopped bickering and stared blankly at Hide in silence; Morita's laughing being the only other sound around them. Hanabi and her grandfather both regained their composure and dusted themselves off before Hanabi's grandfather took out a cell phone from his pocket.

"Ahem," he coughed for everyone's attention, "I know just how to solve this, I'll call the Tenth himself and ask him to decide."

"That's no fair!" Hanabi argued, "He's your Boss! What about my Boss?"

"Eh?" Hide questioned.

"Fine, then we'll let the Tenth and Twelfth decide," the senior said maturely.

"Fine!" Hanabi agreed.

"Fine!" he said back as if the first 'fine!' had been some sort of challenge.

"Hold on now!" Hide interrupted the would-be fight, "I refuse to talk to that guy!"

Hanabi's grandfather sighed as he put away his phone and said "Very well, young Twelfth, I will listen to you, but how do you suggest we get over this problem?"

"I think I have the solution for that," said a small squeaky voice, they all saw Reborn coming towards them while dragging something that was large, wrapped in lime green ribbon, and moving around.

"Reborn!" Hide yelped and then noticed the thing he was dragging was moving and making noises, "What is that thing you have?"

"Look for yourself," he said, the green ribbon retracted itself into a chameleon that crawled up Reborn's arm and revealed a body that was breathing heavily.

"Thank god, I could barely breathe…" the person huffed, it sounded very familiar to Hide.

"Nagi?" both Gokuderas asked, each were surprised and confused at the brother's sudden appearance.

"Huh?" Nagi looked up and saw his sister and grandfather, so he quickly got up and said with genuine amazement, "W-What are you guys doing in my hotel?"

Hanabi rolled her eyes and said, "Look around you, genius."

He did look around and yelled with even more amazement, "When did my hotel turn into a suburban street corner!"

His sister slapped her head with the palm of her hand and said, "We're in front of my apartment building, Nagi!"

"I am?" he asked, he stared at her for a little bit before exclaiming, "Hanabi! You're _not_ kidnapped?"

"I was never kidnapped!"

"Oh, well that's a huge relief!"

Nagi was a tall, young man that looked strikingly similar to Hanabi and their grandfather. He had silver-white hair that was cut just below his ears, and had light green eyes. He was wearing a black suit, similar to his grandfather's except he had his open instead of buttoned closed. He was very handsome too, like super model handsome, and it seemed he had the brains of a super model to boot.

"Ahem," Reborn coughed and pulled on Nagi's pants which the man quickly grabbed before they fell down.

"Sorry, Mr. Reborn, but could you not do that?" he asked as politely as he could, "I forgot to put on my belt today."

"If you don't shut up, I'll do a whole lot worse," the infant warned and then he turned back to Hanabi and her grandfather and said, "I think Nagi here is the solution to your problems."

"What are you talking about Reborn?" the grandfather asked suspiciously.

"Nagi can take care of Hanabi while your doing your business in Italy," Reborn explained, "He can make sure that she doesn't run around and get herself in trouble."

"He can barely take care of himself," he pointed out, "And he has enough problems as it is, he doesn't need to take care of his baby sister."

"I'm not a baby!" Hanabi grumbled.

"Are we in some sort of custody battle or something?" Nagi asked, he walked over to his sister and put his elbow on her shoulder and said, "I don't mind taking care of Hanabi, plus I sort of already lost my job so this will give me something to do. And the doctors said I needed a new outlet, this'll be great for my therapy!"

"Great, now my ridiculous brother gets to take care of me," Hanabi rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on now, Hanabi!" he grinned and said, "I know you, and you've probably been running around the place with out a care in the world. I'm gonna have to establish a curfew and rules."

"I don't need a curfew!" she argued.

"Sure you do, all kids do," he nodded to himself as if this was fact.

"Well, if your taking care of her then I guess I don't have to," their grandfather said in a satisfied tone.

"And I guess I'm perfectly happy with out that old bastard to make me train like hell every day," Hanabi shrugged, her ear was then pulled harshly by the old man.

"Don't say curse words around the Twelfth!" he scolded.

"What sort of mixed up family is this…?" Hide groaned.

"I think it's nice!" Suzuki chuckled.

"Normal!" Morita was still laughing and cracking up.

"Shut up you freakin' giant! Ow!" Hanabi yelled but got her ear pulled again.

"Excuse me for ruining this sweet family moment," Anna interrupted, she had gotten back from talking to the landlady, "But I found someone very interesting."

Rosario appeared from behind her and said worriedly, "Hanabi! I was so worried about you when you weren't at the hospital, so I came here! Oh? Nagi and Gokudera-oji are here too?"

And all at once Hanabi, Nagi, and 'Gokudera-oji' fell to the ground while clutching at their stomachs and foaming at the mouth.

"Oh no!" Rosario gasped, "I forgot how weak and ill you guys are!"

_What sort of crazy family tree is this!_ Hide gawked.

"Family is such a sweet thing," Reborn stated.

_You're only making it weirder!_

"Normal! Hah!" Morita was still laughing and holding his sides, "Oh man, now _my_ stomach hurts!"

"I'm kinda wondering what the whole point of this is," Hide sighed.

"Well, we got to meet Gokudera's gramps and her brother!" Suzuki pointed out cheerfully, "That's something."

"This is such a waste of a day," Anna rolled her eyes.

Rosario knelt down to her relatives and cried out dramatically, "Don't worry! I'll stay by all of your sides while you are all at the hospital the whole time!"

"It feels like my insides are burning!" Nagi groaned.

"Welcome to my world," Hanabi moaned while clutching at her sides.

_I think this day only ended with pain…_Hide grimaced.

**~8~**

"Geez, what kind of mixed up family is that?" Hide wondered aloud as he and his friends walked back to his house, the only ones left out were Hanabi and her relatives because they were still getting their living arrangements together.

"There are crazier families, Boss," Anna pointed out, "The Smoking Bomb's is just slightly more ill than others."

"Hide, the Grandhart-sister is right, all families are different," said Suzuki as he swung an arm around his friend and continued walking, "Gokudera's family seemed like a pretty happy family to me."

"You call yelling at one another and beating each other up a 'happy family'?" he asked.

"That's probably just how they talk to each other, Hide!" the raven haired boy grinned cheerfully.

Hide sighed and decided not to argue this anymore, he honestly wanted nothing to do with family issues since he believed that his was already as messed up as could be.

**~8~**

Hanabi was really reluctant to let her brother share a room with her, she was even more reluctant when her grandfather wanted to see where she lived.

"What's with this place? It's a total mess in here!" he immediately said upon entering.

"I'm so sorry that this place doesn't live up to your snobbish standards," she said sarcastically and quickly guarded her ears from any pulling.

"I think it's nice!" said Nagi while looking around, "Cozy actually!"

"How can you live in such a small place?" her grandfather asked as he searched the one kitchen, one bedroom, and one bathroom apartment.

"I didn't exactly think you guys would come over to where I live," she said, "Much less live with me."

Her grandpa ignored her and was already searching through her refrigerator and complaining about how little food she had.

"Hanabi, I'm going to use your bathroom real quick," her brother said.

"Isn't it your bathroom now too?" she asked but Nagi had already gone.

"Hey Hanabi-chan," her grandfather called to her again, "I need to talk to you about something."

"If it's about my choice in clothing then forget about it," she said flatly.

"It isn't, now come over here!" he called again, she walked into her kitchen and saw that her grandfather was sitting on a stool and beckoned her to come closer.

"You aren't going to start pulling my ears again, are you?" she asked cautiously.

"No, it's about how you went to the underground base two weeks ago with the Twelfth," he said, "Now come closer, I can barely even touch you from this distance."

Hanabi was surprised and wondered how he heard about it, but instead she still took a step closer to him and said, "If you're going to lecture me again about the 'values of life' and all that crap, I-"

She was cut off when she felt a hand pat her on the head, it felt warm and welcoming as it gingerly patted her head and reminded Hanabi of when she was little. She remembered this hand would never dare to slap her away when she needed it, she remembered it would carry her when she was too tired, and she remembered it would pull on her ears when she was being bad. She remembered it was her grandfather's hand.

"You did a good job, Hanabi-chan," he said in a kind tone, he then withdrew his hand and turned around, "For a kid that is."

Hanabi smiled at him and said, "Thanks, geezer."

"I'm not a geezer!"

"You're pretty damn old to me."

"Why you-you ungrateful little girl!"

"Ow! You said you weren't going to pull on my ears!"

"That was then, this is now!"

"Ow! Quit it!"

"Where is that bag of dynamite that I gave Reborn to give you? I bet you didn't even use them, right?"

"Why the hell would I use them? I told you: I _hate_ explosives!"

"I'm back."

"Shut up Nagi!"

"Don't tell your brother to shut up!"

"You're the one that told him to shut up! And he's _my_ brother! I can tell him to shut up whenever I want!"

"Actually, you both told me to shut up."

"This is none of your business, Nagi!" they both yelled in unison.

Nagi smiled hopelessly as they started to argue, he walked out of the small apartment to balcony where their yelling was now only slightly muffled. He took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, not even bothering to light it, and he leaned his elbows on the railing while looking out at the sky.

"I think I can get used to this," he said to himself quietly.

**~8~**

**So that's Gokudera-oji, I hope that made you all happy since I tried to make him as much in-character as humanly possible while also making him very grandfatherly (or fatherly, which ever one you choose), its definitely not as easy as writing Yamamoto-oji as a grandfather or Tsuna-oji as a grandfather (yes, I have some stuff for that written out already). If some of you guys are angry at me because I made Gokudera-oji out to be like an angry old man that tell kids to get off his lawn then I'm sorry, but there's like a huge generation gap between Hanabi and Gokudera-oji! There's bound to be conflict and disagreements!**

**And many of you may be wondering "What's up with Nagi? He totally isn't like Gokudera-oji at all!" well, I'm going to get to that in the next chapter so stay tuned for it! Also, if you want to read more about Nagi then hop on over to my other story Al Cielo, which is like the prequel to Skywards! Except its more about what's going on in Italy and more about Hide's cousin Domeki! Please read!**

**In other news, I took the Mary-Sue litmus test for all my characters and the results were a little humorous to me, I posted them on my forum, Just another Forum, and there's also a link on there to a very accurate site where you can do a litmus test on your OCs too! :D**


	29. Ch 29: Surprise, Surprise

"Tama-chan, Tama-chan! Guess what? I think I'm in love!" Katsura said happily while talking on the phone with a friend of hers in her room one night.

"_Love? Again? Who is it this time Katsura?_" her friend asked in a sing-song voice that suggested she had heard this five billion times before.

"He's the sweetest guy I've ever known!" she said happily while holding up a photo of him in her hand while the phone was pressed to her ear in the other, "I met him in the park with this cute baby, so I just know he loves children! Plus he saved my life when I was drowning!"

"_Are you talking about that same guy you 'fell in love with' three weeks ago?_" her friend asked skeptically, "_That's a rather long time to like someone, even for you!_"

"Geez, Tama-chan, I'm serious about this!" the girl pouted and dreamily said, "I knew from the moment he saved my life that I was meant to be with him forever and ever!"

"_You said the same thing about that soccer player at our school last month_," her friend pointed out, "_You said from the moment you saw him, he would be your soul mate!_"

"That was before the summer though, Tama-chan!" she sighed and said, "You wouldn't know, you've never been in love!"

"_Um, I actually _have_ a boyfriend, thank you very much_," 'Tama-chan' said satisfactorily, "_And this guy that you've been talking about must be different because you usually get over your crushes after a week! Have you at least had a proper conversation with him?_"

Katsura thought about this; the various times she had gone over to his house and asked him to come out probably didn't count, and the first time she met him also didn't count either.

"Well…no…" she said slowly while she tried to prepare something to counteract her friend's skepticism.

"_So what, you just fell in love with him at first sight and you've just been stalking him now, right?_"

"Well…no…we talked a few times…"

"_Oh geez, Katsura! You said he was with a kid right? Let me guess, you probably had some sort of horrible misunderstanding with him and thought that he was influencing the kid to do bad stuff like rob a store or something dumb that only you would think of and you swore to take vengeance for that kid and kill him, but when you were about to kill him, probably on a bridge or something knowing you, you fell off the bridge and he dove into the river to save you. Am I right?_

"…Bulls eye…" she muttered.

"_Katsura! We've been over this before! Stop trusting each and every person that saves your life once!_"

"But…he's…" Katsura stammered, "he…he might be _the one_."

"The one_ my ass, Katsura! Not even my boyfriend's _the one_!_" her friend scolded her and said, "_Katsura, I'm your friend so I'm telling you this, if you know what's good for you then you'll stop concentrating on love for five seconds!_"

"I understand Tama-chan," Katsura said slightly ashamed and hung up the phone.

She flopped down on her bed and stared at her ceiling, which had a large scale picture of Sawada Hideyoshi taped above her bed. Katsura sighed wistfully as she stared at the photo and held her handmade (i.e. badly made) stuffed doll of Sawada Hideyoshi. She stared at the doll for a few seconds before resolving to go to Hide the next day and ask him on a date.

How she got to this conclusion is still unknown.

**~8~**

Hide was surprised, if not completely shocked, when he was suddenly tackled in the park. He was even more shocked when he found that it was the girl that persistently stalked him every where he went.

"Um, Katsura-san, right?" he asked.

_He knows my name!_ Katsura practically swooned but regained her composure and remembered why she was here, _Keep a clear head, Katsura! Remember the goal!_

"Why are you wearing football equipment?" Hide asked when he noticed the shoulder pads, helmet, and jersey on her body.

"That's not important, Hide-kun!" she said determinedly, "I need to ask you something!"

"Uh, what?" he asked, slightly freaked out at this point.

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Hide fell silent and became so still that it worried Katsura if he was alright or not.

"Hm? Hide-kun, are you okay?" she asked curiously.

"He's done it," said Reborn, who had cleverly disguised himself as a bush mainly for the sole reason to be able to scare Hide, "He's been shocked into a paralyzed-state."

"Eh?" Katsura looked back her crush and asked worriedly, "Is there anything we can do to help him?"

"A kiss by a handsome prince!" said Adam, who was hanging upside-down on a tree branch and was disguised as an overly large squirrel.

"Or another shock to the system," said Anna, who appeared right behind Katsura with two tazers in her hands and was disguised as a bear.

"…what's with the outfits?" Katsura asked.

"It was supposed to be part of the plan," Adam shrugged while still hanging on the tree branch.

_What plan?_ she wondered in mild horror.

"But we're going to have to abandon that plan right now though," said Reborn dismissively and continued, "Hide will not end up being a Mafia Boss if he is paralyzed for the rest of his life."

"Then he will need a kiss from a handsome prince!" Adam declared and then, after some thought, added, "Or prin_cess_ in this case."

"A-A k-k-kiss?" Katsura blushed as she stammered the words out.

"Anna?" the twin brother implored his sister to do the deed.

"When hell freezes over," she stated bluntly.

"Well that leaves only one other handsome 'princess'," he said and they all looked at Katsura.

"M-Me? A k-kiss? T-To Hide-kun?" she stuttered and looked at Hide's laying form.

"You already asked him on a date," said Reborn dismissively, "You might as well."

"But-but," she looked from Reborn to Hide and over again until finally she shrieked, "It's too soon!" and ran off.

They were all silent for a little while until Anna held up one of her tazers and said, "I guess that leaves shock to the system."

There was then an awful scream that caused all the birds fly from their trees and all the wild animals to flee from the surrounding area.

"Can you tell me exactly _why_ I was electrocuted again?" Hide asked while putting a bag of ice on his arm where Anna tazed him.

"You really don't remember why?" she asked.

"No, all I remember was that I was walking in the park and then after that it all goes blank," he said while moving the ice around.

"No use in trying to remember it Boss," Adam shrugged, "You'll probably remember again soon."

"What do you mean 'soon'?" he asked suspiciously and it was then he saw Katsura hiding behind a tree, shaking slightly with a red face.

"Katsura-san?" he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"So y-you're awake now," Katsura stated while still hiding behind the tree.

"Did you see me after I blacked out?" Hide asked, "Do you know what I was doing before I blacked out? I can't really remember…"

The girl ran towards Hide with an excited look on her face and asked, "You don't remember?"

"No, not really," he shook his head.

"Th-Then, I have a question!" she announced.

He stared at her funny and said uncertainly, "Yes?"

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Hide fell silent again and the bag of ice fell out of his hand and dropped onto the ground, Katsura worried if the shock of being asked out probably made him paralyzed, but instead he opened his mouth to say something and…an ice cream cone hit him in the face.

"Hide-kun!" she gasped.

"Hey are you alright?" asked the park's ice cream vendor, Hide looked up at him and saw Nagi.

"Either I'm going insane, or that's Nagi-san," the boy grimaced.

"Oh! Young sir!" Nagi said happily and handed him some napkins.

"Yup, that's Nagi-san…" Hide sighed as he wiped the ice cream off his face.

"Everything's going wroooong!" Katsura screamed and ran off crying.

The two stood there in silence before Nagi asked, "What was up with her?"

"You know, I can't really remember," he shrugged, "I think I did another mini-blackout while I was talking to her about…something?"

"Boss, you seem to be having a lot of those lately," Adam noted.

"You should probably get yourself checked by a shrink," said Anna.

"Maybe it's the stress of being around you guys all day," Hide grimaced and decided to change the subject quickly, "Nagi-san, what are you doing here at the park…and selling ice cream?"

The man looked pleasantly surprised at Hide and said, "I'm glad you noticed, young sir! Actually, as a matter of fact, being the ice cream vendor here is my new job!"

"Really?" the boy asked.

"Yup!" Nagi nodded and looked around, "My sister should be around here somewhere…I wonder where she is? Maybe she's been kidnapped again?"

"What-?" Hide began worriedly but then Hanabi appeared right behind him saying:

"Twelfth!" right into his ear, causing him to possibly be deaf in that ear for the rest of the day.

"G-Gokudera-san! Where did you come from?" he asked as he tried to recover from being startled.

"I just wanted to surprise you, Twelfth!" she chirped.

_I think I've had enough of surprises today…_he thought to himself.

"Oh there you are Hanabi! I thought you were kidnapped again!" Nagi said cheerfully.

"I'm beginning to wonder why you keep thinking I'm kidnapped most of the time," Hanabi frowned and sighed at her brother.

"Hey, Smoking Bomb's brother, do you have mint chocolate chip in there?" Adam asked.

"Why yes I do!" he nodded.

"I'll take two then!" he said cheerfully.

"Hey mister!" a small child of no actual discernable gender tugged at Nagi's apron and said, "Can I have some ice cream?"

Adam knelt down to the kid and said and a dark tone, "Beat it kid, I was here first."

The child stared at him blankly for a few seconds and turned around and cried, "Mommy, this onii-chan is bullying me! Waaah!"

"W-What?" Adam paled and felt a sudden killing intent right behind him, he turned around slowly and saw a very large woman with a crying baby strapped to her chest.

The mother looked down at Adam and said darkly, "Are you threatening my Koyuki-chan?"

"Um, uh…" he gulped nervously and looked to his sister for help.

Anna then turned around quickly and said, "You brought it upon yourself."

"You're abandoning me?" he asked.

"Who are you?" she asked while avoiding eye contact.

"We're twins!"

"I think you have me confused with someone else."

_What kind of brother and sister is this_…? Hide groaned.

"Nagi, I told you for the billionth time today, don't give away free ice cream!" Hanabi scolded her brother.

"Oh Hanabi! There you are! I thought you got kidnapped again!" he laughed.

"I've been standing next to you the whole time!"

_What kind of brother and sister is _this_!_ Hide gaped.

"Look! Ice cream!" someone yelled and then suddenly Hide found himself surrounded by elementary school kids, probably back from a summer camping trip.

Hide managed to get away from the kids in time and landed his butt on the grass. He sighed with relief from getting away from them and watched the crowd of children scream their orders at Nagi.

"Twelfth! I got some ice cream for you!" Hanabi said brightly and cheerfully as she walked up to him with two cones in her hands, "I got it from Nagi, before that bus full of brats came!"

Hide never thought that anyone could ever say 'brats' in such a cheerful and normal way before, but now he guessed he stood corrected.

"Thanks, Gokudera-san," he said and took one of the cones she was holding, they both sat down. As they sat in a sort of peaceful silence, Hide looked up over at Nagi who was cheerfully selling ice cream and asked, "Gokudera-san, doesn't something seem a little off about your brother?"

"You mean Nagi, Twelfth?" she asked innocently, "What's so strange about him?"

"Well…he sort of acts differently from you and your grandfather…I don't know how to explain it…" he said uncertainly and then shook his head, "Maybe it's just me."

Hanabi looked at her brother, who was cheerfully giving out ice cream to the children that crowded around him, and said after a little thought, "Actually, sir, Nagi _is_ a bit different…"

Hide looked at with surprise as she continued, "Don't tell anyone about this, I'm only telling you because you're the Twelfth, but…Nagi used to be the right-hand man for the other Twelfth."

_Other Twelfth?_ he thought, _Does she mean one of the candidates before me for Twelfth Boss?_

"You see, Boss," she said slowly while staring at the ice cream cone in her hand, "Nagi used to have a really horrible temper, he would get angry at even the smallest of things, and the only thing that could actually ease him was when he was with the Twelfth-I mean the other Twelfth…but when the other Twelfth died, Nagi blamed his death all on himself and got even angrier to the point where he would become frightening…he had to be put in therapy and given a lot of medicine until he was like a completely different person…so the Nagi you see over there, the Nagi that's giving ice cream to those kids, that's not the _real_ Nagi."

"Gokudera-san…" Hide's eyes widened, he never saw Hanabi so serious before and, when he thought about it, he never actually had any sort of serious conversation with her before.

She quickly ate the rest of her ice cream cone hurriedly, stood up and brushed the grass off her jeans then said, "But that's all in the past now."

"Gokudera-san, are you alright?" Hide asked as she started walking towards her brother.

"Yeah, sorry for telling you such a boring story, Twelfth," she said without looking back at him, "I guess I didn't know what I was thinking."

"Wait, Gokudera-san…" he began but she was already by her brother.

"Don't try to, Hide," said Reborn, he appeared by Hide's feet, "It's no use getting into the personal affairs of your subordinates."

"But Gokudera-san isn't my subordinate! She's my friend!" he argued.

"Has anyone informed Hanabi of that yet?" the infant asked him while fixing his fedora in a good position, "So far, Hanabi only thinks of you as her Boss, maybe unconsciously she thinks of you as her friend but if you were to confront her about this issue and you said the wrong thing, she would most likely leave and never come back."

Hide was silent and looked up at Hanabi, she was scolding Nagi for trying to give away free ice cream to one of the kids.

"I can't just do nothing though," he muttered.

"Sometimes, all you can do is nothing," his tutor said distantly.

The sun was beginning to set, Hide looked up at the sky as it went from blue to orange to red and to purple. And as the blazing red sun was beginning to set on the trees, Hide couldn't help but think of how the summer days were ending quickly and how little time they had left before school started.

**~8~**

**Katsura: Woah! Woah! Is this seriously all of the chapter? Seriously! I'm only in like half of this whole chapter, wasn't it supposed to be entirely on me and how I ask Hide-kun out?**

**Echan: Oh…Katsura…what a…surprise?**

**Katsura: Why am I in only half this chapter, huh? Are you writing me out!**

**Echan: Come on, Katsura, let's not make a scene in front of our readers…**

**Katsura: Cut it out already! Don't you think I'm all pleasant and nice all the way to the core! What's this about you thinking of cutting me out of Skywards? Eh?**

**Echan: I never said I was going to write you out, though.**

**Katsura: But you were thinking about it!**

**Echan: Well…to be honest with you Katsura, you're pretty annoying to write *imaginary arrow goes through Katsura's chest* and you're also very hard to set stories up for *another arrow goes through her chest* and I actually only wrote you in the first place because I thought I could crack a joke with your name *another arrow* so you're pretty much just a copy of Haru from the actual KHR series by Amano Akira.**

**Katsura: *trying to get up from the stabbing emotional pain* Th-That's still no reason to get rid of one of your beloved characters!**

**Echan: *stares blankly at Katsura* but do you count as a 'beloved character' when I'm actually kinda annoyed at you? *another stab through the chest* I've also been feeling that I have way too many female OCs around lately so I've been thinking about writing more male ones for fan-service…**

**Katsura: So you're selling me out for better OCs!**

**Echan: 'Selling out'? Those are such harsh words, I prefer 'trading in' *shifty gaze***

**Katsura: *gaping* B-But I'm your comic-relief character!**

**Echan: Katsura, have you even looked at this chapter? Or the last chapter? My _main_ characters can act like the comic-relief as long as my straight man is there.**

**Katsura: *shocked* Y-Your straight man!**

**Echan: Yes, my straight man! Sawada Hideyoshi! He's absolutely perfect 'common sense' material! Plus he's pretty much at the center of all the craziness in Skywards, this makes him even more perfect!**

**Katsura: H-Hide-kun is!**

**Echan: *laughs maniacally just for the heck of it***

**Katsura: Please! Let me stay as a recurring character, Mistress Author! I beg of you! If you don't, I'll just end up like those nobodies like the ones at the beginning of Skywards that called themselves Hide-kun's friends and were never seen again after Hide-kun left them! Or those guys in the Boxing club who pretty much just yelled random things for the conclusion of the chapter! And those nurses in the last chapter! Please! Don't let me be like them!**

**Echan: *scoffs and doesn't even bother to look down* Fine, I _guess_ I could let you stay on the story. Geez, you're so spastic.**

**Katsura: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!**

**Echan: Get your butt outta here, I gotta make _real_ announcements now *kicks Katsura out***

**Sorry for that folks, I made myself out to be a complete and total b-word…but what Katsura says is I almost completely cut Katsura out of the story, purely because she was hard to write for. But instead, I decided to deal through the hardness and take it up as a challenge…I'm so valiant *sarcasm***

**If you want to discuss this with me and my fancy friend Neszriah, writer of other NextGen/FutureFic stuff like Vongola Unidecisimo and Zio Hayato, then come on over to my forum: Just another Forum and go head over to the topic headed On the topic of future fictions…**

**Sorry for the large amount of A/N guys, KHR belongs to Amano Akira**


	30. Ch 30: Hanabi's Hanabi

**Summer Festivals. I've always wanted to go to one in Japan and the only references I have for Japanese Summer Festivals are from my best friend (whose half-Japanese) and anime/manga. So I hope this will suffice culture-wise and grammar-wise, and I hope you all like it!**

**NOTE: Anything with a * at the end of it has a note at the bottom of the page!**

**~8~**

_Boom, boom, boom!_

The festival drums boomed loudly as Hide watched them. There were about a dozen or so drummers in dark blue mid-length robes over black shorts and white headbands on twisted around their heads. One of the drummers was Morita, who was intensely beating the drums and trying to keep up with the others.

"Taiko! Taiko! Taiko!*" the children that were around Hide cheered as they watched the drummers.

_Boom, boom, boom!_

Hide managed to trudge through the crowd of children and was pulled out of the mob by a helpful Suzuki, who was wearing a light blue yukata** that had white waves along the bottom and was dark blue around the top and tied together with a dark green obi***. Hide was wearing an orange yukata that had an autumn leaf print on it and was tied with a red obi.

"Wow, I can't believe a middle school kid is playing the drums with the festival drummers!" Suzuki said in awe.

"That's probably because they thought Morita-kun was a high schooler when he asked to join them," Hide shrugged.

They watched the drummers a little more before they decided to visit the gaming booths before the festival ended.

The Namimori summer festival was always held in the town center, Hide once heard that it was once held over by the abandoned shrine but he couldn't believe that anything as festive and fun as the festival could ever be near that scary, haunted temple.

"Hey, Hide," Suzuki began as they were walking through out the town center.

"What?" the blonde Japanese asked.

"Isn't that your tutor over there?"

Hide looked and saw Reborn in a tiny yukata at the shooting booth. The infant picked up one of the toy guns and shot every single target with just one of the corks.

"Too easy," he said as he blew imaginary smoke off the muzzle of the toy gun.

"Nooo! My business!" the owner of the booth cried out.

"Hurry and wrap them all up," Reborn commanded.

"Reborn!" Hide gawked.

"Wow, you must be one sharp shooter, kiddo," Suzuki said with amazement as the booth owner grudgingly gave the hitman a box filled with all the toys that were on display.

"Reborn, what are you doing!" Hide yelped.

"Just playing the local games," Reborn said innocently.

_You're making the booth owner cry! _

"Here, you can carry my other prizes," Reborn then pointed behind him and revealed a huge pile of even more toys and prizes from various other booths.

_How many booths did you rob! _Hide gaped, "There's no way we're taking all those home, Reborn!"

"Why not?" he asked innocently.

"Because mom will think _I_ stole them or something!" he argued.

"And?"

"Reborn!"

"Oh fine," the infant shrugged, "It's not like I need these cheap toys anyways."

**~8~**

So after Hide vehemently apologized to all the booth owners and returned the prizes, him and Suzuki began to play the other games that were around.

"Hide, that booth looks pretty crowded!" Suzuki said and pointed to one of the booths that had a ton of people crowding around it.

The boy took a few steps back so he could see the booth's sign over the crowd and said, "Goldfish Catching, huh? I wonder why so many people are there when there are other booths just like it…"

"Hide-kun! Suzuki-kun!" they turned around and saw Megumi, who was in a spring green yukata that had a white lilac print on it and a large yellow obi her chest. Her red hair was tied up into a neat bun, her bangs were swept aside and held in that position by green hair clips.

"M-Megumi-san!" Hide stammered and blushed at the sight of the girl, _Wow! Megumi-chan in a kimono!_

"Hey, Tanaka-san!" Suzuki waved cheerfully.

"Did you guys see Morita yet?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah!" Hide immediately stated, "He was, um, pretty cool on those, um, drums…yeah…" Hide then mentally smacked himself for the failed sentence.

Suzuki noticed this and came to his friend's rescue by jerking a thumb over at the Goldfish Catching booth and asking, "Hey, Tanaka-san, do you know what this huge crowd is for?"

"Oh yeah," she quickly nodded and said, "I think I remember Hanabi-chan telling me she was working with her brother at a Goldfish Catching booth, maybe this is it?"

"Gokudera?"

"That would explain the large amount of people," Hide grumbled and quickly shook his head, "No, if it was Gokudera-san, then everybody here probably would have gotten blown up by now."

"Why don't you check?" Reborn suggested as he came out from seemingly no where dressed in a goldfish outfit. He opened a closed palm and Leon jumped out of it and turned into a ladder, "You can even use Leon."

"Great idea, little guy!" Suzuki brightened as he took the Leon-ladder and propped it on a nearby building.

"Why are you being so nice all of the sudden, Reborn?" Hide questioned suspiciously.

But before the infant could answer, Suzuki called to him and said, "C'mon, Hide!"

"Right, coming!" he called back and gave Reborn a suspicious look before climbing up the ladder.

"What do you see up there?" Suzuki asked.

"Um," the blonde squinted his eyes at the booth, "I can't see anything, there's too many people around it!"

"Then maybe you should make a path!" Reborn stated and kicked the ladder over.

"Hey-Wait! Reboooorrn!" Hide screamed and waved his arms around as he fell over towards the booth.

"Look out!" someone screamed and, the next thing the future mafia boss knew, he was face down on concrete in front of the Goldfish Catching booth.

"T-Twelfth!" he heard Hanabi gasp.

"H-Hey Gokudera-san," he groaned.

**~8~**

"Sorry you guys had to close up your booth," Hide apologized, to be honest he wasn't all that sorry since this event had led to Megumi putting band-aids on his face.

They were now behind the Goldfish Catching booth, now closed, where it turned out that both Hanabi and Nagi were working at. Nagi had brought a first-aid kit but had no clue what any of the stuff inside was for, so Megumi ended up being the one to put band-aids on Hide's bruised and beaten face.

"Not a problem, young sir," said Nagi as he put up the first-aid kit, "We were out of goldfish by the time you fell from the sky."

"Oh really?" he sighed with relief.

"Are you sure you're all right, Twelfth?" Hanabi asked worriedly.

"Y-Yeah, I am," he nodded.

"Hanabi-chan, your yukata is so cute!" Megumi squealed in delight.

Hanabi then quickly changed from 'right hand man/woman'-mode to 'teenaged girl'-mode in an instant, "Isn't it? I got it on sale for like 50 percent off!"

"Eh? Really? No way!" and then they started chatting it up fashion and other girl-stuff.

"Gokudera-san sure has a lot of different personalities…" Hide muttered.

"Haha, sometimes I think she's been kidnapped and replaced with another person!" the older brother laughed.

Hanabi was dressed in a red yukata that had black and gold carp on it and a gold-colored obi; her hair was in a ponytail and a red flower rested on the hair-tie that kept the ponytail in place. Her brother, on the other hand, was dressed in a white t-shirt and faded jeans with a dirty apron over him and a light-blue bandana keeping his silver-white hair out of the way.

"Why were you guys working at a goldfish catching booth anyways?" Hide asked.

"We're trying to get rent money," Hanabi said miserably, "Because my stupid brother got fired from his job."

"Fired? How?"

"Well, it all started when-" Nagi began cheerfully before his sister pushed him aside.

"I don't know, and quite frankly I don't _want _to know," she sighed.

"Well it's actually a pretty funny story, Hanabi," her brother smiled, "I was working at the ice cream cart and then my boss came up to me and fired me."

They were all silent before Hide asked, "Which part of that was supposed to be funny?"

He laughed and said, "I guess none of that was funny!"

Hanabi rolled her eyes and sarcastically clapped, "My brother, everyone!"

"Gokudera-san, don't you have a job?" asked Suzuki.

"No," she shook her head, "I lived off of my allowance from my parents, until my _brother_ decided to plug my allowance and make me work for a living," she then shot a glare at her brother.

"I thought it would build responsibility!" he said nonchalantly.

"I have enough responsibility looking out for you!" she yelled.

"Now, now," Suzuki grinned, "No need for siblings to fight, right?"

"Speaking of siblings," Megumi began, "where's Anna-chan and Adam-kun?"

"They said that they were going to come later," said Hide, he then grimaced and said, "I just hope they don't come in with some corny joke like they usually do…"

"Did someone say corn?" a voice asked, Adam then burst out of no where with an ear of corn in each hand with Anna at his side wearing a corn-costume.

Hide then slapped his face with his hand and muttered, "Why am I not surprised…"

Adam on the other hand was cracking up at his own joke, "Get it? Corn? Corny? Haha!"

_That's such a horrible pun…_ Hide gawked.

"W-Where did you get that costume, Anna-chan…?" Megumi asked unsteadily, apparently she was also shocked by the sudden appearance.

"Mr. Reborn gave it to me," the foreigner answered as she took the corn costume off, she and her brother were dressed in jeans and plain t-shirts, Anna had her short blonde hair pulled into a pony-tail and Adam was wearing a baseball-cap, "He was very useful and even offered different costumes for us."

_Why am I not surprised at that either…?_ Hide thought grimly, and then asked warily, "Wait a minute, where's Reborn?"

"We saw him playing some games on our way here," answered Adam.

"Great," he groaned, "He's probably making all the booth owners cry…"

"Oh yeah, he was doing that too," Adam nodded.

"Wonderful," he muttered reluctantly, he stood up and said, "I'm going to go find him, do you guys want to meet up somewhere?"

"I don't know," Suzuki shrugged, "Where's the best place to see the fireworks?"

"Fireworks?" Hanabi questioned, "There's going to be fireworks?"

"Yeah," Megumi nodded, "It wouldn't be a festival without fireworks!"

"Oh," she said and shifted in position, "I think I might go home early then."

"Eh? Why?"

"I'm just really tired, is all…" she said despondently.

"Hanabi's scared of fireworks!" Nagi said cheerfully.

Hanabi blushed and yelled, "Sh-Shut up you stupid brother! I am _not_ scared!"

"Then why do you always leave before fireworks start?" he asked.

"Because they're loud and annoying," she said flatly.

"So…you're going to leave then, Hanabi-chan?" Megumi asked sadly.

"Yes," she nodded.

"Come on, Gokudera! Don't be such a downer!" Suzuki grinned and slapped her on the back friendly.

"Touch me again, and I'll break your wrist…" she threatened.

"It's okay to admit if your afraid of fireworks, Smoking Bomb," Adam shrugged dismissively, "Anna's scared of dogs-"

His twin sister quickly put her hands over his mouth and said to everyone else, "You didn't hear any of that."

"O-Okay…?" Hanabi nodded.

"Anyways," Hide began and looked at Hanabi pleadingly, "Gokudera-san, are you _sure _you don't want to see the fireworks with us?"

Hanabi hesitated for a second before replying, "Well…um…" Hide's large hazel colored eyes caused her to have seconds thoughts until finally she gave in and muttered, "A-Alright, but only because the Twelfth asked me!"

"Thanks, Gokudera-san," Hide sighed with relief and turned back to everyone else, "I'll go then and find Reborn before he starts making all the booth owners cry…"

**~8~**

The group split up, promising to meet each other on the bridge over the river. Hanabi grumbled as she was left alone to watch annoying kids run around laughing while circling they're parents.

"I can't believe what I'm doing here…" she grumbled as she walked around the festival grounds, "I should just head over to the bridge and wait there already."

She then turned around and started heading towards the bridge when a couple of very large and menacing men appeared in front of her and grinning very creepily.

"Hell-o thar, little lady," one of the two menacing men said in a creepy voice.

Hanabi ignored them and kept on walking, one of the men put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Wut? Do ya think ya're te gewd fer us?*****"

The bomber grimaced as they reeked of alcohol and said, "I need to go."

"'Ay! I bet yer one of dem…Namimori kids, right?" the first menacing man said drunkily.

"Leave me alone," she demanded and started walking away, she had her cards but she bet that there was no use in blowing up a couple of drunk idiots.

"Oi, little…girl," the second drunk man swayed uneasily, "Ya look mighty fine en dat…kimono…"

"How old do you think I am?" she asked dangerously, flirting was where she drew the line when it came to drunk idiots.

"Seventy-en!" the drunk claimed.

"Thirteen, sicko," Hanabi grumbled and quickly started to leave.

"Hold on!" one of the men yelled and grabbed her arm.

"Let go of me!" she yelled and tried to pull her arm away, his grip tightened and she decided to reach for her deck of cards.

"She said let go of her," Hanabi looked at the bandage-wrapped hand that had suddenly grabbed the menacing man's arm. It must have hurt since the man was suddenly whimpering in pain.

"Fine, screw ya!" the menacing man yelled drunkily and let go of Hanabi's arm, him and his other drunk friend staggered away before deciding to hit on some other poor girl.

Hanabi then shot a glare at her rescuer and said sourly, "Who said I needed your help, giant?"

"Geez," Morita sighed, "You can be really ungrateful, and girls shouldn't be walking alone especially in that outfit! You're practically a walking target for drunks!"

Her face went red and she yelled, "Don't underestimate me, giant-bastard!"

"You can be scary sometimes," he stated, "But you're still a girl, you need to be more aware of your surroundings."

"I was about to blow them up!" she claimed, and she really was but if Hide had been around then he would have tried almost every resource to stop her from creating a crater in the middle of the festival grounds.

"Hey, did you go see the drum-beaters?" he asked eagerly.

"Don't change the subject!"

"So you didn't?" he asked sadly.

"Well…" Hanabi hesitated before answering, "How could I not? You guys were so loud and were right at the festival entrance."

"So you saw us?" Morita brightened.

"What's with those stupid outfits that you guys were wearing?" she asked.

"These?" he pointed at his own clothes, "They're the uniforms for the drummers."

"What a stupid costume," she commented.

"They might be stupid, but it's tradition to wear these!" he argued and then asked, "Have you seen Megumi? Or anyone else?"

"Yeah," Hanabi nodded and said sourly, "We're supposed to meet at the bridge over the river for the fireworks."

"What's wrong? Do you not like fireworks?" Morita asked when he noticed that she wasn't exactly happy at the moment.

"What made you think that, genius?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well, you just said 'fireworks' like it was something horrible," he pointed out.

Hanabi spun around and started walking towards the bridge, she turned her head slightly in his direction and said, "I'm going to the bridge; knowing you, you might get lost so it's probably best if you follow me."

"You know," Morita began as he followed her, "People who think they're acting cool on the outside usually look like complete idiots in reality, it's not like this is a manga or anime filled completely with good looking and cool people."

"Shut up," she sighed.

**~8~**

_This is the happiest moment of my life…_Hide thought blissfully as he was walked alongside Megumi.

"Hide-kun, are you okay? You're face is all red and you keep looking up when nothing's in the sky," Megumi asked with sincere concern.

The blonde-haired boy quickly shook his head and said, "No! I'm completely fine! I just can't wait for the fireworks to start!"

He then glanced upwards and quickly prayed, _Thank you god! Buddha! Anyone of thing that let this happen!_

"It was very nice of you to walk me around the festival, Hide-kun," the red-head said cheerfully, she smiled sweetly at him and, as corny as this sounded, it felt like an arrow of love struck through his heart.

"N-No problem," he smiled back at her brightly, "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know, I already played most of the games here," she said thoughtfully, "Do you want to go get something to eat before going to the bridge?"

"Yeah! Sure!" he quickly nodded, _This is the best night ever!_

"I still don't see why we couldn't get Boss to show us around," Anna stated as she and her brother were being dragged away from Hide and Megumi by Suzuki.

**~8~**

"Shh! They need to be left alone!" Suzuki stated.

"Wouldn't that leave Boss out in the open as an easy target?" asked Adam.

"Are you guys still on about that Mafia Game?" the baseball player sighed, "Look, Hide _wants_ to be left alone with Tanaka, for very specific reasons. Haven't you guys ever wanted to be alone with someone you like? And I mean _really_ like too!"

The twins just stared at him blankly and said in unison, "We've never had someone we _really _like."

"Are you serious?" he asked in complete bafflement, "Really?"

"I don't have the time for that sort of thing," Anna stated.

"I don't want that sort of thing," Adam stated.

"Well," he began, "You guys need to understand that when a boy likes a girl, he usually wants to spend time with her. Alone. Uninterrupted."

"Okay, fine," the male-foreigner nodded reluctantly, "But how will we know if Boss is safe or not?"

"We'll know if he comes to the bridge over the river with a happy smile on his face," Suzuki stated satisfactorily and quickly tried to divert their attention with games, "Look, its one of those hoop-games!"

"Hoop-games?" Anna questioned.

"Yeah, you toss a hoop at one of the items, and if the hoop lands on it you get to keep it!" the baseball player said cheerfully, "It's pretty fun!"

"You get to keep it as long as it's in the hoop, right?" Adam asked, the table where the prizes were at was a flat, long table and seemed to be organized from how great the prizes were as in the most expensive prizes were at the top and the cheaper ones like candy and toy rings were at the bottom.

"Yup!" he nodded.

The blonde-haired boy smiled and looked at his sister, "Anna?"

"Okay," she nodded and went up to the booth owner.

"My, my! You're pretty cute, girly!" the booth owner grinned when he saw Anna, he took three hoops from underneath his table and said, "Here, I'll give you a free game just because you're so cute!"

"Thank you sir," she said politely and glanced at the items, "I want the purse."

"This purse?" the owner pointed at the extremely fancy and expensive looking purse that was at the top right-hand corner of the large table, "You're going to have to win it, girly!"

"Okay," Anna nodded and threw one of the hoops towards it, it didn't even reach the purse and the booth owner laughed.

"Don't worry! You still have two more hoops, girly!"

"Okay," she nodded again.

"Anna, that isn't like you," her brother pointed out, "Usually you hit the target on the first go."

"This isn't like shooting a gun, Adam," Anna stated, "It's all in the wrist."

"That sounds about as stupid as it seems," Adam teased.

"Leave her alone, Grandhart-brother!" Suzuki grinned, "She needs to concentrate in order to get that purse!"

By now a huge crowd of people had surrounded them and were all watching the twins and Suzuki. The booth owner was getting a little nervous, mainly because a group of people and a good looking girl didn't go well when the good looking girl lost and the group of people got angry for her and started a riot.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely get this one," Anna said confidently and threw the hoop.

As it turned out, the hoop bounced and caught/dragged every single prize on the table, including the peaces of candy and toy rings, and only stopped when it reached the purse and landed on it peacefully.

"W-What!" the owner's mouth fell down in horror.

"I'd like that all in a box please," the girl said politely.

"Well…she got the purse…" Suzuki shrugged.

After a ton of begging on the booth owner's side of things Anna decided to have mercy on the poor man and give everything back…except for the purse though.

"Um, do you guys want to try another game?" Suzuki asked.

"No, that was entertaining enough," said Adam who kept the image of the grown man crying fresh in his mind.

"I guess we should go to the bridge then? It's kinda early though…" Suzuki said doubtfully.

"How far away are we from it?" Anna asked.

"About ten minutes, but I guess we could sorta stroll around," the baseball player shrugged.

"Or we could go find Boss!" Adam suggested.

"No," Suzuki stated flatly and then said cheerfully, "How about we all just go to the bridge then? I'm sure Gokudera is probably there already by herself."

**~8~**

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the river in Namimori…

Hanabi sneezed.

"Only idiots catch colds in summer!" Morita quickly said, he had been waiting to use that line ever since he had heard it from one drummers.

"Shut up! Only old men say that sort of thing!" Hanabi scolded as she wiped her nose.

**~8~**

"I know! We can watch the parade from the bridge too!" Suzuki said excitedly, "You guys _have_ to see the parade! It's the best part of the festival!"

"A parade?" Adam questioned, "You mean like a bunch of people on overly decorated cars throwing candy at you?"

"Um, no," the raven haired boy shook his head uncertainly and said, "The parade is filled with dancing and music and people in costumes and all that stuff!"

"You say 'and' too much," Anna commented.

"Oh, so it's like Mardi Gras******!" Adam nodded.

"Um, I guess," Suzuki nodded, uncertain of what a 'Mardi Gras' was.

"I'm not taking my shirt off for beads though," Anna stated flatly.

"Y-You don't have to!" the raven-haired boy said quickly, "And beads aren't involved in it in any way!"

"So it's just the dancing, music and people in costumes part?" Adam asked.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Suzuki's sweat dropped.

And so, Suzuki spent the rest of the night trying his best to explain parades in Japan did not involve topless people and drunk people handing out beads.

**~8~**

"Geez, why am I stuck here with you?" Hanabi muttered as she waited for everyone to come to the bridge with Morita, "A giant boxer who dressed in a ridiculous outfit and talks like an old man…"

"No I don't, and I told you that this is a uniform!" Morita argued.

"Shut up," Hanabi threatened and whined, "Why couldn't the Twelfth be here…"

"Huh? Why do you want to be around Hide so much?" the boxer asked.

"Because he's not you!" she yelled.

"Wow, you can be kinda rude sometimes, scary girl," he shrugged.

"Quit calling me scary, or I'll make you blow up!" the bomber threatened.

"If you keep threatening people then you'll just become scarier, scary girl," he pointed out.

"Why you-!" she began when a fistful of playing cards ready to explode but immediately calmed down and spun on her heel when she heard someone yelp:

"Gokudera-san!"

"Twelfth!" she said brightly and noticed Megumi at his side eating some takoyaki, "Oh, hey Megumi."

"Hey Hanabi-chan," the red-head chirped and saw Morita, "Morita! How did you get here?"

"The scary girl told me we were all meeting at the bridge," he answered.

"You don't call girls 'scary' Morita…" Megumi sighed and turned to Hanabi, "Thanks Hanabi-chan."

"Yeah, yeah," the silver-haired girl waved dismissively before turning back to Hide and exclaiming, "Twelfth! You can't believe all the trouble I've been through making sure _this _guy," she jerked an accusing thumb at Morita, "didn't get into trouble."

"Wasn't it _me_ who saved you from those drunks?" Morita asked.

"I'm just glad no one got injured," Hide sighed with relief.

"Hey guys!" they saw Suzuki's waving figure and Adam and Anna just behind him, "We're all here now, huh?" he grinned when he finally came near them.

"Yeah!" the young Boss nodded and then asked, "Wait, where's Reborn and Nagi-san?"

"Didn't you say you were going to get him?" Suzuki asked.

"Oh no! We forgot!" Megumi paled and quickly apologized to Hide, "I'm so sorry Hide-kun! I distracted you because I was hungry!"

"D-Don't worry about it!" Hide blushed, "Reborn will be alright on his own."

"Knowing Nagi, he's probably lost…" Hanabi sighed.

At that moment Nagi crawled out from the river and onto the bridge, seaweed trailed down his arms and stuck to his clothes as he go on the bridge, and he looked up at them and said nonchalantly, "Hey guys."

"Don't 'hey guys' me!" his sister yelled and punched him in the mouth, "What were you doing coming out from the river like that! That was so creepy!"

"Well it was Reborn-san's idea," he said as he rubbed his mouth.

"Reborn?" after Hide said that name, a kappa******* came out from under the bridge too and crawled up it.

"Reborn! What are you doing in a kappa-costume!" Hide gaped.

"Ciaossu," Reborn answered and waved his green kappa-hand.

"It's already too late for that greeting!" his student argued.

"Don't interrupt me," the tutor scolded and kicked Hide in the shin.

"Then what were you going to say?" he asked.

Reborn was silent for a bit before saying, "…guys."

"You were totally _not_ going to say that!" Hide yelled.

"Shut up, the fireworks are starting," Reborn stated and right at that moment something shot off in the distance and the sky was lit pink with a pink sakura flower.

"Wow…fireworks…" Hide said in awe as he watched.

"What?" Hanabi asked.

"No, I mean those fireworks not you, Gokudera-san, sorry," Hide quickly said.

"Hm," she looked back up at the sky and said, "I still don't see the big deal."

Another firework zoomed up and became a red dragon before slowly fading out and allowing more to occupy the sky.

"Isn't it cool though, Hanabi-chan?" Megumi asked, "Look, a four-leaf clover!"

"Wow, that one's spinning!" said Morita in amazement.

"And that one's looks like its raining green!" Suzuki pointed at another.

"It's just a mixture of chemical compounds activated by an excessive amount of nitrogen in the air," Hanabi muttered.

"I have no clue what you just said," said Nagi, who was probably the only one listening to her.

"Idiots…" she grumbled, "I'm surrounded by idiots…"

She then looked up when she heard something scream in the sky and a large orange firework boomed loudly and made the entire sky look like it was on fire for just a few seconds.

"That one must be a new one!" Suzuki yelled as everybody had gone deaf from that last one.

"Wow…" Hanabi's mouth fell open in amazement.

"Oh? Is Hanabi beginning to like fireworks?" her brother teased.

"Shut up, Nagi," she said before kicking him in the shin. She looked back up at the fireworks and wondered, _When will one of those come back up…?_

**~8~**

*** I found out that 'Taiko' is what the drums used in Japanese festivals are called.  
** A 'yukata' is what is generally worn by guys at Japanese summer festivals, it's like a lighter version of kimono.  
*** An 'obi' is the strap that goes around a yukata to keep it from coming open. A wider version is also used on kimonos.  
**** translates as 'octopus balls' its favorably eaten at festivals and other Japanese festivities along with things like chocobananas (i.e. chocolate covered bananas), yaki-soba (BBQ noodles) and okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake).  
***** Don't worry, this is just a bunch of drunks talking drunk-talk. Drinking is bad kids!  
****** A parade normally held in New Orleans or anywhere by the sea and in the south, it's filled with dancing, music, and tons of drunk people in weird costumes.  
******* A mythical creature that is like a mix between a duck and a turtle. It generally lives in lakes or ponds.**

**Ugh, so many notes, I'm beginning to worry whether all these asterisks (These '*' things) are good for my health…well this chapter is done! My school is starting up soon and I can't wait to see my school friends again :)! Best 16th summer ever :D. **

**Next chapter will be at the beach! There will be surfing! Fishing! Swimming! And possibly skin cancer (aka sunburns)!**

**KHR belongs to Amano Akira, but my own OCs belong to me :)**


	31. Ch 31: Giant Man Eating Jellyfish

**Hmmm, I don't really like how some parts of this chapter came out…oh well! As I mentioned in the last chapter, this one will be all about the beach and the group's time at it! And as an extra bonus, I included an extra for this chapter! **

**So without further ado, bring on the skin cancer!**

**~8~**

Suzuki liked water, it was very calming. There were more reasons why he liked water, but the main reason was that it was just calming. Plus, everyone was always happy around water.

"What's that you're humming, Suzuki?" asked Hide from next to him, they were riding in Hide's gramps' old van, the same van that he normally took for fishing; Hide and Suzuki were at the front next to Hide's gramps (who was driving of course), Hanabi, Megumi and Morita were in the second row of seats, and Adam, Anna and Nagi were all in the back fast asleep.

"It's this song from a movie I watched with my mom when I was a kid," the baseball player answered cheerfully, "When ever I see the sea, I think of that song."

"Is that that movie that you were obsessed with when we were kids?" Hide asked, "The one with the goldfish that had a face and became a girl*?"

"Yeah! You remember it?" he asked excitedly, "We should see it when we get back then!"

"I'd rather not, Suzuki …" the other boy grimaced as he remembered having to watch that movie over and over and over again when he was a child.

"Thanks again, Mr. Yamamoto for taking us to the beach!" Megumi said from the seat behind them.

"No problem! This is something Hide and Kouhei** do every year anyways!" Yamamoto grinned and said, "I remember when I went to the beach with my friends when I was younger."

"Wow! I didn't know you guys did this every year," Megumi smiled sweetly at the two boys in the front seat.

"Y-Yeah!" Hide quickly nodded.

"Okay, we're here!" Yamamoto announced as he put the van in 'Park'.

The doors slid open and every piled out. The guys were already wearing their bathing suits so it was agreed that the girls would change in the van while they helped set up a good spot to be in.

"This spot looks pretty fine," said Suzuki as he set down the umbrella, "I'm glad we got to the beach early!"

"It's eight in the morning," Adam yawned, "That's way to early for me…"

"Don't you get up at five in the morning to make me go running with Reborn?" Hide pointed out.

"Yeah, but then I sleep," he yawned again and outstretched his arms, "It's pretty chilly too…"

"It'll get warm pretty fast," Suzuki said helpfully, "It is the beach after all."

"Morita-kun, can you help me with this cooler?" Hide asked, he was standing next to a large, red and white cooler that was filled with ice and drinks for them.

"Okay," the boxer nodded and helped pick up the cooler and put it by the umbrella where Adam and Suzuki were setting out blankets.

Once they were done with getting everything set out, they decided to take off their shirts and wait out for the girls to come back.

"Where did your gramps go, Hide?" asked Morita.

"He's over by the van with Nagi-san making sure no one peeks on the girls," the boy answered and then shot up when he remembered a certain someone, "Does anyone know where Reborn is?"

"Uh, no," they all shook their heads, "He wasn't on the van with us."

"Oh no," he moaned, "He's probably going to appear out of the sky or from the sea or from under a rock in some ridiculous way!"

They were all silent for a few seconds, waiting to see _if_ Reborn would really appear out of no where and do that. But nothing happened.

"Hide, maybe Reborn stayed at your house today?" Suzuki suggested.

"No, I refuse to believe that," the boy said with fear.

"I wonder what's making those girls take so long," Adam said out loud as he was laying down in the morning sun on the barely warm sand.

"You take longer in the bathroom, don't you?" his sister asked as she sat down next to him.

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do," Hide agreed and looked around as the girls started to arrive with Yamamoto and Nagi behind them. He immediately brightened when he saw Megumi in a blue bikini with a white flower print on it.

"What kind of girl wears a sweater at the beach anyways?" Adam pointed out the large white sweater that Anna had over her bathing suit.

"I don't wanna swim," she answered, "I'm going to stay here on land."

"I know!" he smirked and began to asked, "You're going through your pe-"

Anna then stepped on her brother's face and said, "Oh, Adam, I didn't see you there. You shouldn't lay on the beach especially with your blonde hair, people won't notice you and probably step on you more."

"Ha-ha," he fake-laughed as he pulled his sister's foot away, "An accident then?"

"Yes," she replied, "An accident."

"I see," he got up and brushed himself, he then eyed his sister with a smile on his face, "An accident?"

"An accident," she said.

"Accident," he stated.

"Accident."

Hide could feel the tension in the air between the twins and decided not to get caught in the middle of a sibling rivalry between two assassins.

"So guys," he began while ignoring the two, "Why don't we all go to the beach?"

"Finally!" Morita stretched and turned around, "I'll race you guys!"

"It's on!" Suzuki grinned competitively and looked at Hanabi, "I bet you can't catch up to us, Gokudera!"

"Shut up!" she yelled and started running after them, she grabbed her brother along the way and yelled, "Come on, Nagi! We're going to beat them!"

"Okay," he said peacefully.

"W-Wait for me, you guys!" Megumi stumbled as she tried to catch up.

"Me too!" Hide called after them.

"Oh yeah, Hide, a friend of mine should be meeting us here," said Yamamoto right before his grandson went off to go play in the ocean with his friends, "If you see a guy dressed in camouflage then come get me, that should be him!"

"Okay gramps!" Hide waved dismissevly and ran off into the ocean.

Yamamoto sighed and shook his head, "Sometimes I wonder if that boy listens to me…"

**~8~**

The beach was beginning to get crowded around noon and the group had to move out of the ocean since kids were beginning to get caught up in the game. They were all fine with it though since they had already gotten super tan and pruny from being in the ocean.

Suzuki whistled at his dark skin and said, "I wonder if I'll have a tan-line after this…"

"Wow, my hands are all wrinkled now too!" Megumi giggled as she examined her hands.

"Y-Yeah!" Hide agreed as he looked at his hands, "Mine too!"

"I'm glad we got out then," Morita sighed, "But I kinda wish we could have stayed a little longer."

"Gramps should have lunch ready by now though," Hide noted as they started walking towards where they had set their stuff earlier.

The boy then yelped and pulled his foot away, "Ow, ow!"

"What is it Hide?" Suzuki asked, startled by the sudden outburst.

"I-I just stepped on something really pointy!" the boy yelped as he jumped around with his foot in the air.

Megumi looked down at what he stepped on and found a large seashell with spikes on it, "It's a sea shell, Hide-kun! How lucky!"

She bent down and picked the shell up, carefully wrapping her fingers around the parts that weren't spiked, "Wow, what a pretty shell."

"Ciaossu!" Reborn popped out of the hole in the shell causing Megumi to scream as she dropped the shell and ran behind Morita.

"R-Reborn-chan!" she said shakily from behind the boxer, "Goodness, you scared me!"

"You get scared too easily, Megumi," Morita sighed.

"You would be too if Reborn-chan suddenly came out of the shell you were holding!" she gulped and then said to Reborn, "I'm sorry for dropping you Reborn-chan, you just startled me!"

Reborn was in a hermit crab costume, the sea shell being part of the costume, "It's okay, Megumi," he said, "I didn't really expect for you to pick me up, I was expecting Hide to do it."

"So you were planning on pranking _me_!" Hide yelled and then realized something, "Reborn, how did you get to the beach anyways?"

"An old acquaintance got me here," he answered as he took off his costume, the yellow pacifier on his neck started to glow, "Oh, it seems he's still nearby."

"Huh?" Hide questioned but then Reborn was kicked in the back of the head by an infant with blonde hair, blue eyes, and dressed head-to-toe in camouflage, "What!" the boy gawked.

"Got you, Reborn! Hey!" the newcomer said triumphantly, a blue pacifier that was glowing was around his neck.

_What the-!_ Hide's mouth hung open.

"Colonello," Reborn said while standing up, he brushed his fallen hat off and put it back on, once he was done he glared at the camouflaged infant and said darkly, "Now you've done it."

"What are you going to do? Hey!" he asked as he shot an equally threatening glare at Reborn.

"Hmph, nothing," he smirked and answered, "I don't waste my time on weaklings."

"Weak? Hey!" the blonde-haired infant questioned, "If I was weak, I wouldn't have been able to kick you, right? Hey!"

"Only a coward would attack from behind," Reborn walked up to the other and head-butted him, "And cowards are weak."

"Really? Hey! Because I remember you falling down into the sand, hey!" the newcomer said and head-butted the other back, "If anything, _you_ are weaker than me, hey!"

"Yeah? Well you're just a bug in my eyes," Reborn replied and head-butted him again.

"You're just a piece of mold in mine. Hey!" the newcomer said and did the same.

"A bacteria," the tutor stated as he repeated his action.

"Protozoa, hey!" the camouflaged infant said.

"Cell."

"Atom. Hey!"

"W-Wait!" Hide interrupted their argument and looked at Reborn who had smoke coming from his forehead from all the head-butts, "Reborn, do you know this crazy guy?"

"Hey!" the 'crazy guy' called to the boy, "You're Reborn's newest student, right? Hey!"

"Um, yes?" he nodded, the infant then jumped up and head-butted Hide. The impact was surprisingly more powerful than Hide had expected and the boy went flying back into the ocean.

"H-Hide?" Suzuki and Morita's mouths fell open.

"Twelfth!" Hanabi yelped and ran off to save her beloved Twelfth.

"Was that acting?" Megumi smiled peacefully and clapped at Hide's 'performance'.

"Hey! That kid has a good head, Reborn," the infant stated as he rubbed his head, "It was very hard, hey! He wouldn't happen to be that guy's grandson or son, right? Hey!"

"Grandson, actually," Reborn answered.

"Does that mean he's here?" the camouflaged infant brightened.

"Colonello!" Hide looked up as Hanabi helped drag him to the beach and saw his gramps talking peacefully with the blonde-haired infant.

"G-Gramps?" he questioned.

"Colonello! Long time no see!" Yamamoto grinned at the infant.

The newcomer said nothing and jumped up and head-butted Yamamoto, the elderly man didn't really react to this as he remained perfectly still and laughed.

"Still doing that head-butting thing, Colonello?" he laughed.

"A hard head as always, Yamamoto Takeshi. Hey!" the newcomer and held out a hand for him to shake.

"Thanks, I guess?" he laughed and shook the tiny hand.

"Gramps, do you know this guy?" Hide asked as he came back up to them.

"Hide! This is the old friend I was talking about!" Yamamoto quickly introduced, "His name is Colonello, we were buddies back in the day!"

"_He's_ your old friend?" the boy asked while pointing at Colonello.

"Yup! Didn't I just tell you that?" he grinned.

"He just head-butted me into the ocean!" his grandson yelled.

"Oh yeah, he does that," Yamamoto nodded, "It's sort of like a greeting for him."

_What kind of greeting is that!_ Hide's mouth fell open.

"I could tell he was your grandson, Yamamoto Takeshi, hey!" Colonello nodded, "He has a very hard head, just like yours. Hey!"

"Really? Most people can't even tell we're related because of the hair color!" Yamamoto grinned.

_What a weirdo_, Hide sighed and looked at his gramps, _But he's Gramps' friend, so he can't be all bad._

"How do you know Reborn-chan, Colonello-kun?" asked Megumi.

"We used to work together," Reborn answered.

_He was Gramps' friend from his Mafia days!_ Hide's mouth fell open again.

"Aw, how cute!" she said cheerfully.

"And you guys must be Hide's Family? Hey!" Colonello asked as he looked at Suzuki, Morita, and Hanabi.

"Well, we're not actually related to him," said Suzuki.

"I'm the Twelfth's right-hand man!" Hanabi stated and the quickly added, "Well, _wo_man, to be more specific."

"Oh, this is part of the online game, right?" Morita asked.

"I see, so you are," Colonello nodded.

_How could you tell from just those statements!_ Hide gawked.

Colonello then went on a head-butting spree on the three of them, they all fell back except for Morita who seemed unaffected by the head-butt.

"I see, you all have soft heads except for the giant-guy," the infant said, "That means that the only person with true talent for being a hitman is that guy."

_What kind of criteria is that?_ Hide wondered.

"Huh?" Morita questioned.

"Haha, this is part of the game, right?" Suzuki laughed.

"W-What! How could I lose to the giant-freak!" Hanabi yelled.

"Oh, I thought you were serious for a second there," the boxer sighed with relief, "If this is just part of that Mafia-game…"

"Of course he would be joking, Morita!" Megumi scolded, "He's a child, how could he know how to measure talent for being a hitman!"

"I guess you're right, Megumi," he shrugged.

"Wait," Hide asked, "You said I had a hard head, like gramps, does that mean…?"

"Yeah, hey! You have the natural talent for being a hitman, hey!" the infant stated.

_Has my life really been ruined from the start…?_ the boy wondered

"Then that means you are extremely wrong, Colonello," said Reborn, "Hide's a good-for-nothing plain kid who can't even do a push-up."

"Such harsh words," Hide muttered and then looked at his gramps, "Gramps, is this guy seriously an 'old friend' of yours?"

"Hm? Oh yes! Yes he is!" Yamamoto nodded, "He helped the Family out a lot in the old days!"

"The 'Family' as in…" the boy grimaced.

"The Vongola? Yup!" his grandfather said cheerfully and added, "Sometimes I miss those days, it was fun all the time back then!"

_Gramps, I've underestimated your easy-goingness once again…_Hide grimaced as the picture of a younger version of his gramps holding a gun in the midst of a heated battle appeared in his mind.

"My relatives…was I just born and bred to become a part of the Mafia…?" the boy said to himself in despair.

"Yes," Reborn answered immediately, Hide's gramps hadn't heard him as he was too busy chatting with Colonello to notice.

"Oh yeah, Hide, lunch is ready over by where we set our stuff up," Yamamoto said cheerfully, "You guys go on, I'm gonna chat with Colonello a bit more.

"Okay, Gramps," Hide nodded and looked back at his friends, "Let's go guys!"

They all went to eat their lunch, which was made up of some sandwiches and sushi which was kept in the cooler.

"Wow! You're grandfather makes such good sushi, Hide-kun!" Megumi complimented after they were all done.

"Heh, he's the best after all!" Hide blushed and grinned.

"Yeah, Hide! This stuff is really good!" said Morita with a mouthful of sushi.

"That's disgusting! Food is coming out of your mouth when you talk!" Hanabi frowned, Suzuki on the other hand was just laughing at this.

**~8~**

Adam and Anna had stayed on the beach the entire time the others were swimming, it looked like they were still fighting with each other too. It also looked like they hadn't taken the special pill that kept them from getting stung by bugs and getting sun-burnt, so now their skin was all red against their blonde hair and there were tiny dots where the bugs had bitten them.

"Why didn't you take the SAIR pill?" Morita asked after he gulped the rest of his food, SAIR meaning Sun and Insect Repellant.

"Have you ever actually looked at what that pill is _made_ of?" Anna asked.

"Why would I?" he questioned, "It works all the same, doesn't it?"

She opened and closed her mouth, speechless, before muttering, "It's filled with a bunch of gross stuff…"

"Yeah, but it still works doesn't it?" he pointed out.

Anna remained silent at this and Adam said out loud, "I didn't use it because I forgot, maybe if I did I would be as red as you, sis."

The twin then took her silent revenge by slapping Adam on his dark red arm.

"OW!" he yelped and hit her back.

"That hurt…" she muttered and slapped him on the back.

"You don't think that hurt either!" he yelled and slapped her on the leg.

They then started a slapping war with each other that lasted almost all day.

"What weirdos," Hide sighed while shaking his head.

"Really? I think they're acting pretty normal for a brother and sister," Suzuki noted.

"Yes, normal is totally when a brother and sister start beating each other up for no reason," the boy said sarcastically.

"Hide, you're an only child," Morita pointed out, "You probably don't get sibling-stuff like this."

"And you do?" he asked skeptically while taking a sip from the water bottle.

"Well yeah, I have younger brothers after all," the boxer shrugged.

Water spewed out of Hide's mouth and he quickly gawked at Morita, "You have brothers!"

"Um, yeah?" he said, "Two of them, one's eight and the other's five, they do this sort of thing to each other all the time when they refuse to take their SAIR pills."

_I wonder why this hasn't come up sooner?_ Hide wondered, he felt strangely guilty about this for some reason.

"They're pretty cute kids though, Hide-kun," Megumi smiled cheerfully, "You should meet them some time."

_Megumi-chan is so cute when she's smiling like that!_ the boy sighed happily at this.

"Wow," Hide heard someone mutter, it was then that he noticed that pretty much the whole beach was staring at them.

"Look at those girls, are they models or something?" he overheard someone murmur.

"They're so cute!"

"Let's go over and talk to them!"

"Twelfth, what are you staring at?" Hanabi asked, completely oblivious to the comments that were made in her direction.

"Damn, they're with guys," he could hear them say as they gave up.

"Twelfth?" Hanabi asked again.

"N-Nothing, Gokudera-san," he quickly said and thought, _Wow, for some reason this sort of makes me proud…_

"Hide's thinking of perverted thoughts," Reborn stated after coming out of the sand, both Hanabi and Megumi went red at this.

"H-Hide-kun! I didn't know you were like that!" said the red-head.

"Twelfth!" the bomber gasped and then quickly shook her head, "N-No, nothing…"

_You were obviously thinking something!_ Hide gawked and turned around to Reborn to yell, "Reborn! I wasn't ever thinking that!"

"You don't have to deny it, Pervert-Hide," the infant said innocently.

"Don't even try to get out of this one!" his student snapped.

"Hey guys, have any of you seen Mr. Yamamoto?" asked Nagi as he was searching through their cooler, "We're all out of drinks and he has the keys to the van."

"I think he's still talking to Colonello-kun," Megumi said helpfully.

"It's been an hour, how long could that conversation take?" Morita asked.

"I'll go look, you guys stay here!" said Hide.

"I'll come with you, Hide!" Suzuki volunteered.

"Not without me you're not, baseball-freak!" Hanabi stated and went after him.

**~8~**

As it turned out, Yamamoto and Colonello were in the exact same spot as they were when the group had left them. They were still chatting happily by the looks of it; or at least Yamamoto was, Colonello had a nearly straight poker face on.

"Oh! Hide! Kouhei!" Yamamoto waved when he noticed his grandson and friends coming up to them, "And Hanabi-chan too! Oops! I guess we kinda lost track of time since we last saw you, huh? Sorry guys, me and Colonello here had a ton to talk about!"

"I didn't know that a baby and an old geezer had so much in common," Hanabi grumbled, she had passed the 'chan' honorific and given up on it when it came to Hide's gramps.

"Hide, guess what!" the elderly man said excitedly, "Colonello just told me that he was the owner of this beach!"

"Yes, hey!" Colonello nodded.

_How can an infant be the owner of a beach!_ Hide gawked.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Suzuki said in awe to Colonello, "Are you like, super rich or something?"

"No, hey!" the infant shook his head, "This used to be a marine base, hey! But it's been abandoned ever since the country signed that peace-treaty twenty years ago, hey!"

"So you know people who would give you this base?" the baseball player asked, "That's pretty cool."

"Nope. Hey!"

"Then isn't it kind of illegal to do that sort of thing?" Hanabi asked.

Colonello then smirked and stated, "I deal with illegal everyday, hey!"

_That sounds exactly like something Reborn would say!_ Hide gawked.

"Haha! Colonello's so funny!" his gramps laughed.

_I don't think he's joking, gramps…_the grandson grimaced and then looked around, for some reason all the faces in the crowd began to look scarier and more threatening, _Now that I think about it…there's an awful lot of huge guys with scars and suspicious things around them…_

"Colonello turned this marine base into a Mafia Resort," said Reborn, who was relaxing on a miniature towel and beach chair with a tiny parasol shading him, "It's now a place where only top members of the Mafia go and spend their vacation."

_What the heck!_ Hide gawked.

"That's right, hey!" Colonello nodded, "We're proud to say that we've gone two days without anyone getting killed, hey!"

A horrible scream occurred right after the camouflaged infant said that, but nobody else around them seemed to pay attention to it.

"Make that five minutes," the infant corrected himself.

Both Hide's and Hanabi's mouths hung open, but Suzuki was just laughing to himself.

"Haha! That's a great joke, Colonello!" he laughed.

_No, Suzuki, it's not a joke…_Hide grimaced, _I don't think any of this is a joke…_

"Hide, your gramps has some pretty interesting friends," Suzuki said cheerfully.

"Don't I know it," the boy sighed and then looked at his gramps, "Gramps, Nagi-san sent us here to say that we're out of drinks and you're the one with the keys to the van."

"Oh yeah, Colonello, why don't you hang out with my grandson and his friends?," Yamamoto suggested, "Since I'll have to go and get drinks. They wouldn't mind, would they?"

"Not really," Hide shrugged.

"The more the merrier!" Suzuki grinned cheerfully.

"You sound like an old man," Hanabi pointed out.

"Okay then, hey! If you want me to baby-sit them, I will," Colonello shrugged, "Hey!"

_That sounds like the opposite of what gramps asked me to do!_

"Hide, hey!" Colonello began as the group had resumed to playing in the ocean, the camouflaged infant was sitting in a light blue inner tube as it floated gently in the water, "Did Yamamoto tell you about the giant jellyfish that lives in this part of the ocean? Hey!"

"A giant jellyfish?" Hide rolled his eyes, "Yeah right."

"Colonello is telling the truth, Hide," said Reborn as he floated by on a similar looking inner tube, "There is a giant man-eating jellyfish that sneaks around here."

"Th-There is?" said Megumi shakily, who had overheard the conversation, "How scary!"

"Don't listen to them, Megumi-san, it's probably just a bunch of lies," Hide said quickly.

"The story goes," Reborn ignored Hide and went on with his fun, "There was a Mafia gang that trained and bred a giant jellyfish that eat people, but the jellyfish ended up eating them and it escaped into the sea. Now it still lurks in this part of the ocean, looking for tasty Mafiosi to eat…"

"Wha-What's a 'Mafiosi'?" the red-head asked nervously.

"A person in the mafia," Reborn explained and then added, "Of course it looks for others too."

Megumi shivered a little and quickly said, "I-I think I just felt something move past my feet!"

Hide looked down and saw nothing, he then thought, _Wait, is Megumi-chan scared easily? I don't see Morita-kun around, she'll probably run to me since I'm closest if something happens!_

A scene showed up in Hide's head where Megumi ran into the arms of Hide and clung on to him for comfort.

"Kya~! Hide-kun, save me!" she yelped.

"Don't worry, Megumi-chan, I'll always be here for you," he would say suavely.

"Oh Hide-kun," she would blush…and then the romantic sunset would occur, even though it was two in the afternoon, and they would kiss in the ocean…

Of course all of this was in Hide's head, the boy immediately shook the blush off his face and said, "Don't worry Megumi-san, I'll be here!"

But she was already getting out of the ocean and muttering, "I-I think I'll just wait with Anna-chan and Adam-kun on the beach…"

_She didn't even hear me_…Hide sighed disappointedly.

"Don't worry, Hide," said Reborn, "You can probably still get eaten by the giant man-eating jellyfish."

_That's not even what I was thinking!_ the boy gawked.

He then felt something slimy grab his leg and he jumped up, "It's the giant man-eating jellyfish!" he screamed and clung onto the closest person that was around, which happened to be Suzuki.

"Huh? What's wrong, Hide?" the baseball player asked, "I thought you could swim just fine."

"S-Suzuki!" Hide paled, "Um, this is-uh…"

"You were right, Reborn, hey!" said Colonello as he rose up from the sea, Hide hadn't noticed that the infant was gone, "He does scream like a little girl when he's scared. Hey!"

"See, didn't I tell you?" the tutor nodded.

"R-Reborn!" Hide gawked, "I do _not_ scream like a girl!"

"Um, Hide…" Suzuki began, the boy looked down and saw that his arms were still wrapped around Suzuki's waist and he quickly let go, the baseball player grinned sheepishly and said, "You don't have to be embarrassed, Hide, you _do_ sound like a girl when you scream sometimes."

"Not you too!" Hide grimaced.

**~8~**

"Boss!" Adam brightened as he was playing in the sand, "How was the ocean? I heard there was a giant man-eating jellyfish there!"

"No, that's a lie," Hide quickly dismissed it, him, Suzuki, Reborn, and Colonello had decided to go back on land they had both lost track of Morita and Hanabi.

"What are you doing with the sand?" asked Suzuki, he pointed at the red bucket that Adam was holding.

"This? Anna told me to get it," he answered.

When they got to where they set up their stuff, Anna was sitting on the ground piling sand on top of something while Megumi was sitting besides her watching.

"She's been doing this for a while, apparently," Megumi explained, "I don't even know what she's doing."

"I'm done," the blonde haired girl announced, before her was an intricate design of buildings and forts and a small moat all made out of sand.

"Wow!" Megumi clasped her hands together and said in awe, "A sandcastle!"

"Yup," Anna smiled to herself, "I haven't made these in a while, so I'm a bit rusty."

"Liar, you worked on this thing for an hour and even planned the whole thing out ahead of time," said Adam.

Anna didn't say anything but she did quietly glare at him and reached over to slap his sun-burnt skin. In response to this, Adam did the same and once more their slapping war resumed.

"Have you guys seen Morita?" Megumi asked, "I think I lost track of him and Hanabi-chan when we were playing in the ocean."

"Maybe they got eaten by the giant man-eating jellyfish," suggested Reborn.

Megumi paled and gulped, "W-what?"

"Quit saying stuff like that!" Hide scolded, "There's no such thing as a giant man-eating jellyfish!"

"There isn't?" the red-head asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

This made Hide blush and he quickly looked away and said,"B-Besides, I won't let anything hurt you, Megumi-san…"

He glanced back to her and saw her with her mouth hanging open, he felt a shadow fall upon him and turned around to be face-to-face with a jellyfish.

"Agh!" he yelled and fell to the ground.

"Hey! He didn't sound like a girl this time! Hey!" said Colonello, an eagle was holding onto his shirt collar and helping him fly at about Hide's height and Reborn was being held up by Colonello and holding a Leon-jellyfish in his hands.

"No, a shame though, isn't it?" Reborn sighed.

"Quit scaring me like that!" Hide yelled and glanced around until she found Megumi, she was frozen with fear at the sight of the jellyfish.

"J-J-Jellyfish…" she quaked.

"Hey guys!" Morita waved at them as both he and Hanabi came walking up to them.

"Twelfth!" Hanabi immediately ran over to the fallen Hide and asked worriedly, "Are you alright! I'm sorry I left your side, Twelfth! I just turned around for a second and found myself lost in the huge crowd of people!"

"Yeah, and then I had to get her out," Morita snickered and stopped when he noticed Megumi, "Yo Megumi! What's up with her?"

"Giant man-eating jellyfish," Hide muttered.

"Jellyfish?" he questioned and saw Reborn holding the Leon-jellyfish at hand, "Sorry, little guy, but could you put that jellyfish away? Megumi's been scared of those things ever since she was little."

"She has?" Hide asked.

"Yup," the boxer nodded, "I don't know why, but for some reason she immediately freezes up whenever she sees a jellyfish."

So after Reborn had turned Leon back into his chameleon form, Megumi fell to her knees and sighed heavily.

"S-So scary!" she whimpered, "I never want to see another jellyfish again…"

"Megumi, why _are _you so scared of jellyfish?" asked Morita.

"Are you kidding?" she glanced up at him and shivered, "They're so slimy and they had these tentacle-things that sting you! It's so creepy!"

_Note to self, Megumi-chan is scared of jellyfish,_ Hide memorized in his head and turned back to Reborn and Colonello to scold them some more, but the two infants were asleep.

"Those guys are just way too much like each other," he muttered and turned around only to get kicked in the back of the head by both.

"We're nothing like each other," they both stated and fell back to sleep again.

_They both just fell back to sleep!_ Hide gawked.

"Has anyone seen Nagi?" Hanabi asked, "I thought he was here but I guess not…"

"He went with Mr. Yamamoto to get drinks," said Megumi, as she recovered from the jellyfish-shock, "They also said they were going to get dinner too."

"I wonder what they're going to get us," Morita said thoughtfully.

"It's probably hotdogs," said Suzuki, "Hotdogs and chips are usually what Hide's gramps gets every year."

"Yeah, there's a good chance it's going to be that," Hide nodded and looked back at the sleeping Colonello and Reborn, "They were having those hold-your-breathe underwater competitions and a swimming competitions…they're probably super tired."

"Wow, kids have so much energy," Suzuki grinned.

"You're talking like some old man again," Hanabi pointed out.

**~8~**

Pretty soon the van drove up to the parking lot and they could see Nagi and Yamamoto waving for them to come and help unload some of the stuff.

"Oh, there you are Hanabi! I thought you were kidnapped again!" said Nagi upon seeing his sister when she and the others had arrived to help them.

"Shut up and help, Nagi," she muttered and tossed a giant bag of chips his way.

"Kouhei, Morita, take the grill and be careful with it alright?" Hide's gramps cautioned, "It's pretty heavy, Adam can you take the charcoal and lighter?"

"Okay," the boys said in unison

"Hide, help me with the cooler okay?" his gramps asked and looked at the girls, "You girls take whatever is left in there, alright?"

"Yes sir!" all three nodded.

As they got the grill set up and the charcoal burning, Yamamoto took some hotdogs out of the cooler and put them on the grill.

"Wow! It smells so good!" said Megumi.

"It's not bad," Hanabi muttered.

"Heh, glad you girls like them!" the elderly man grinned and then asked, "Oh wait, none of you are vegetarians or something like that, right? I probably should gotten some lettuce too…"

"No, it's alright," Megumi shook her head, "None of us are vegetarians!"

"That's good," Yamamoto sighed with relief and turned over some of the hotdogs, "Okay, who wants the first ones?"

They all clamored over the hotdogs and chips and they all ate until their stomachs were full. The sky was beginning to turn red around them and everybody was beginning to get sleepy so they all decided to leave for the day.

Everybody piled into the van except for Colonello and Yamamoto, who decided to stay and say their goodbyes to each other before leaving.

"See you, Colonello," Yamamoto shook hands with the camouflaged infant, "It was good seeing you again."

"Come back again, soon, hey!" said Colonello, he then added, "And bring watermelon, Reborn and I can both try a watermelon-smashing competition next time. Hey!"

"Why don't you come down to Namimori during the winter? Not a whole lot of people would come down to the beach by then," the elderly man suggested.

"Maybe, maybe, hey!" the infant said thoughtfully, "Have a safe trip, hey!"

"Yeah, thanks!" he nodded and went to the van.

**~8~**

Yamamoto smiled as the group was all fast asleep in the van, the beach-trip generally ended like this every year with everyone extremely exhausted and sun-bathed from playing by the ocean all day. The old man climbed into the driver's seat with Hide right next to him and Reborn sleeping soundly in his grandson's lap.

"We had a lot more people this year," he mused and started the car.

As Yamamoto was driving in the night, something must have woken Hide up as the boy started to stir and rub his eyes sleepily.

"Gramps?" he yawned and looked around, everyone else was still fast asleep.

"Hey there, buddy!" the elderly man grinned at his grandson, he took one quick hand off the steering wheel and ruffled the boy's hair, "How's it going? If you're so tired, you should go back to sleep!"

"No, it's okay," Hide shook his head, "I kinda want to ask you some stuff, gramps, while everyone else is asleep."

"Questions? Fire away, buddy!" he grinned, "Is this for your summer homework?"

"No, Reborn made me do that at the beginning of summer vacation," the boy sighed, "No, it's about the Mafia and what exactly happened at the underground base."

Hide could tell that his gramps stiffened up a little after hearing that, he didn't know exactly how since nothing seemed to change on the outside but it was like his gramps suddenly became a whole different person on the inside for just a second.

"Mafia, huh?" he said solemnly in a voice that Hide had never heard from his gramps before, Yamamoto then brightened and said, "Like I said, fire away, buddy!"

"Um, alright," he nodded, he hadn't really been expecting that answer and he actually didn't know where to start with all the questions he had, "So, how exactly do you know about the, uh, God Boxes? And where exactly _do_ you stand in the Mafia world?"

"Straight to the point, eh?" he grinned, "Well I'll tell you this, because you're my beloved grandson. I first met your grandfather when I was in middle school, just like you."

"You did?" Hide asked, he had always suspected the two have either never met or only met when Hide's mom and dad got married.

"Yup, me and him became really good friends," his gramps nodded reminiscently, "Of course, one thing led to another and I ended up working for him and the Vongola Family!"

_You say that as if it's common…_the boy thought to himself.

"And the God Boxes…well," the elderly man began thoughtfully, "Well, they were invented around forty years ago, probably a little more, I was one of the first people to get them since I was good friends with the scientist who made them. They were really powerful back then, but your grandfather didn't like them, he said that they were too real and resembled humans too much. So they were abolished and hidden somewhere, nobody actually knew where but I guess a few were hidden here in Namimori."

"So…that's why you know so much about them?" he asked, "Because you were friends with the scientist and you were one of the first people to get them?"

"Yup!" Yamamoto nodded cheerfully and looked at his rear view mirror, he could see the sun-burnt Grandhart twins sleeping soundly in the back and he adjusted the mirror so that it was just looking at the back window.

"Hide," he began, "Those twins, do you know much about their family?"

"Hm? Uh, no actually, I don't think so," Hide said thoughtfully.

"Really? Strange," his gramps stated while keeping his hazel colored eyes on the road, "Because I remember that scientist who made the God Boxes very well, he sort of looked like those two. Blonde hair, blue eyes, of course he wore glasses, but they're almost like exact copies."

"It's probably just a coincidence, Gramps," Hide quickly dismissed it, "Anna and Adam said that there were a lot of people in America with blonde hair and blue eyes."

"Yes, that may be so," he nodded and then added, "But his name was Daniel Grandhart."

Hide froze, lights flashed by as the van sped through the night-lit road. He couldn't help but want to look back at Adam and Anna, they were both still sound asleep. The boy sunk back in the chair, Reborn was still asleep in his lap as well, and he looked up at his gramps.

The man was still driving along as if nothing had just happened.

"School's starting tomorrow," he said, "You should really get some rest, Hide."

**~8~**

***PONYO, PONYO, PONYO!**

****Kouhei is Suzuki's given name, Suzuki is Suzuki's family name.**

**~8~**

**Wooooow, I just realized I made Yamamoto-oji out to be super creepy in the last part, I'm sorry Yamamoto-fans! Colonello was probably a little OoC too, but I don't really know Colonello's personality too well other than the fact that he has a long-standing rivalry with Reborn.**

**And last of all, KHR does not belong to me, it is a property of Amano Akira; however all of the OCs belong to me! :)**

**Extra!**

**~8~**

"Hide, you know how to swim, right?" Reborn asked after he had been watching Hide play around in the ocean with his friends.

"Huh? What kind of question is that? Of course I know how to swim," his student said with a hint of suspicion, "I've known how to swim since I was a little kid."

"Oh really? I'm only asking this because all of my students before you didn't," Reborn said in his own defense and then asked, "If you know how to swim, do you mind explaining your method?"

"What? Um…" Hide scratched his cheek thoughtfully and shrugged, "Sure, I guess. I don't see how that could cause me pain in any way…"

He went to a deeper part of the ocean with Reborn following him in an inner tube, and stopped and looked back at his tutor.

"Okay…" he said slowly and began, "First, I take a deep breathe in and then I go into the water and move my arms around like this and go 'mm-pah! mm-pah! Guh! Guh!' while also…" at this point Hide started moving his arms to where it somewhat resembled a swimming motion, "…and then I just keep swimming forwards. You know?"

"Not really," said Morita, who happened to be watching, "What was up with all of that 'go deeper while moving my arms like this' stuff?"

"Well, um, you know, just go deeper while moving your arms like this…" he said slightly uncertainly and then Hide wondered if he had been swimming the right way all his life or not.

"No, I don't know, the way your explaining it is so abstract," the boxer shrugged his shoulders.

"Eh? Really?" he said with mild surprise, "This is how I learned from my Gramps!"

That day, Reborn came to the conclusion that of all the things that Hide could have inherited genetically from Yamamoto it was his knack for trusting his instincts and learning things by doing them…of course this only made things harder for Hide's training and punishment.


	32. Ch 32: Back To School

**Ugh, finally got this chapter done. I hoped you all liked that extra I put out :) I'm thinking about writing another extra but I don't know what it will be about yet…But that doesn't exactly pertain to the story lol!**

**REVIEWER SHOUT-OUTS! ColinatorGX, KusajishiFuktaicho, **

**~8~**

"Duck! Duck!" sang out the voice of a little girl who walked alone in the streets of Namimori. A fish bowl, that had no fish in it but was filled with water, was being balanced on her head of shiny black hair rather unsuccessfully since the water inside it kept sloshing out onto the ground.

"Duck! Duck! Duckie!" she still sang, the puffy red jacket she was wearing was soaked from keeping the fish bowl placed on her head and her yellow rain boots squeaked with each step she took.

"Duck! Duck! Duck!" she finished her song loudly and placed the bowl on the ground in the barren street. The little girl leaned over the fish bowl and examined the contents of it closely, the bowl was half-full with water that was still swirling around. "Still not back!" she said to the bowl and put it back on her head to sing cheerfully, "Duck! Duck! Duckie!"

**~8~**

In less random news, Hide was quickly being put to sleep by his teacher's monotone voice as he droned on and on about the current lesson. It was Geometry. The various shapes and equations were even putting the new assistant teacher to sleep.

"Sensei," Hanabi raised her hand, "Kurokawa-sensei is being put to sleep by your boring lesson."

"Wh-What!" their math teacher shot a glare at the assistant teacher, he was snoring in a slouched position on his chair and had his arms folded together, "Kurokawa-sensei!" the teacher barked.

The assistant teacher immediately fell out of his chair and yelled, "Kurokawa Takuma! Here!"

The whole class snickered as the assistant teacher's face went red and he was sent out into the hallway to be scolded by their math teacher.

Suzuki turned around in his seat to Hide and whispered, "Isn't that new assistant teacher supposed to be just a coach for gym?"

"Don't talk to the Twelfth when he's studying, bastard!" Hanabi hissed from where she was sitting, which was right behind Hide.

The boy whimpered to himself as the two (or more like Hanabi) had been arguing with each other (very one-sidedly) ever since school started back up. They had also been doing this ritual every day ever since Suzuki and Morita were both switched into Hide's class.

"Calm down, Gokudera, I was just making small talk," Suzuki smiled wistfully.

"Small talk or large talk, you're just a huge distraction to the Twelfth!" the silver-haired Italian stated.

_You're being an even bigger distraction, Gokudera-san!_ Hide thought to himself but said out loud, "It's alright Gokudera-san, he was just talking about the class's new assistant teacher."

"Kurokawa-sensei?" she questioned and slouched in her chair, "That guy seems like such a lazy bum, all he does is sleep during the lessons and play games on his phone. I heard he was just aiming to be a gym teacher and he had to learn how to teach another class in order to get hired."

The teachers soon came back into the class, Kurokawa looked slightly dejected as he went to the back of the class and sat down at an empty seat.

"Now then," the math teacher coughed while keeping a wary eye on Kurokawa, "The angles used in this formula…"

The teacher then went back to his droning and before anyone knew it, Kurokawa was fast asleep.

"Kurokawa-sensei!" the math teacher scolded, his face was a livid red.

"Kurokawa Takuma!" the assistant teacher stated after falling out of the desk from hearing his name shouted.

There was a murmur of laughter from the class but it was then quickly hushed when the teacher glared at all of them. Hide sighed in his desk and rested his head on top of it.

"Today's going to be long again, I know it," he sighed as Hanabi continued to bicker with Suzuki.

**~8~**

The bell quickly rang for lunch to start, the class's math teacher shot a glare at Kurokawa before stomping away angrily. The assistant teacher soon followed after rather embarrassedly.

Hide looked towards the front of the classroom where Megumi was sitting and saw her talking to a few of her classmates about having lunch in the school's courtyard.

_I wish I could have lunch with Megumi-chan…_he thought wistfully.

"Hide!" Morita yelled as he jumped in between Hide's view of Megumi, "Let's have lunch on the rooftop!"

"The roof?" Suzuki questioned cheerfully, "I'll go too!"

"Okay, the more the merrier, right Hide?" the boxer grinned.

"There's no way in hell that I'm going to leave you idiots and the Twelfth alone!" Hanabi declared.

"We'll go too!" Adam quickly volunteered both him and his sister.

_Instead of being with Megumi-chan, I'm stuck with the most dangerous and random people in the school!_ Hide whimpered to himself, he then sighed and said, "Alright, we'll go to the roof for lunch. But I need to buy a drink from the vending machine first."

"I'll go with you, Hide," said Suzuki, "I need to get a drink also."

"Then I'm going too!" Hanabi yelled.

Hide left the classroom with Suzuki at his side and Hanabi trailing behind him while keeping a wary eye on Suzuki.

"What are you going to buy at the vending machine, Hide?" he asked as he was impervious to Hanabi's sharp glares.

"I don't know, probably-" Hide began and then stopped when he heard something squelch underneath his feet, "Water?"

"Water? That's pretty plain, Hide," Suzuki shrugged.

"No, water," he shook his head and looked down the hall, "There's water all along the hallway!"

"Eh? Did someone have to do that bucket-punishment*?" he questioned.

"Don't be an idiot," Hanabi rolled her eyes, "If that was it then the water would only be in one part of the hallway, not all over it."

"Do you have an idea, Gokudera?" he asked cheerfully.

"Che, isn't it obvious?" she scoffed, "It's clear to see that the reason why there's water all over the hall way is because someone peed their pants."

The three immediately became silent and looked down at the puddles on the ground.

"I don't think anyone's bladder is big enough for this much…uh…pee, Gokudera-san," Hide said slowly as he cautiously moved his foot away from the puddles.

"Well, I can't think of anything else," she shrugged as she too avoided the puddles.

"Maybe someone had a bucket of water and spilled it?" Hide suggested as he decided to take the common sense route, "Or something happened in the chemistry lab or in the home economics room."

"Heh, maybe you're right, Hide?" Suzuki grinned.

"As expected of the Twelfth, of course he's right!" Hanabi nodded confidently.

"Quack!" Hide nearly fell over when he turned around and saw a little girl quack at him.

"W-What…?" he faltered.

"Quack, quack, quack!" she sang out happily while keeping both hands on the fishbowl on her head, "Quack, quack!"

"Uhm…" he looked around uncertainly until he turned back to the kid and asked, "Are you lost of something, little girl?"

The girl immediately stopped quacking and stared straight into Hide's eyes before asking, "Who are you?"

"Ahiru," Reborn stated as he suddenly appeared out of a nearby fire extinguisher case.

"Reborn!" Hide jumped when he saw the infant, he quickly regained his composure and looked back at the little girl, "Do you know this girl, Reborn!"

"Yes," his tutor nodded, "She is the granddaughter of a friend of mine."

_Great, another weirdo Reborn knows…_Hide sighed and looked back at the girl and thought, _but for some reason, she looks kinda kind of familiar…_

"Reborn-chan!" she brightened and leaned towards the infant as the fishbowl balanced on her head sloshed everywhere.

"Hello, Ahiru," the infant nodded and looked up at the fishbowl, "Is there supposed to be something in that bowl?"

"Hn?" she questioned and then turned her attention the fishbowl on her head, "Oh yeah! Ahiru lost her pet! Have you seen my pet?"

"Reborn, why is this little girl referring to herself in the third-person**?" Hide whispered.

"Hey there kiddo!" Suzuki instantly greeted the girl cheerfully, "Did you say you lost your pet?"

"Yes!" the little girl nodded, more water spilled out of the bowl and got Suzuki's feet wet, "Ahiru lost her pet in this school! Ahiru knows it because Ahiru saw it go this way!"

"What's with the fishbowl?" he asked while grinning.

"This is Ahiru's pet's bowl, not a fishbowl!" she said stubbornly.

"Hey kid, bug off you're bothering the Twelfth," Hanabi warned to the little girl.

"Meanie," Ahiru stuck her tongue out at her, Suzuki had to hold Hanabi back from beating the living daylights of the kid, "Reborn-chan, will you help Ahiru find Ahiru's pet?"

"I can't, I'm helping Hide," Reborn stated.

"Hide?" she questioned.

"The weakling you see standing before you."

Ahiru stared up at Hide blankly before saying, "Boring."

"Why you-!" Hanabi began angrily but was held back by Suzuki.

_I get the feeling that this girl and I are going to be good friends,_ Hide thought as he remembered the wonderful and blissful days when he was called 'plain' and 'normal'.

"Twelfth, give me permission to beat the crap out of this girl…" Hanabi asked in a rather frustrated tone.

"G-Gokudera-san, you can't beat up little kids!" he stammered.

"Scary!" Ahiru stated while pointing straight at Hanabi.

"You little-!" the older girl began but before she could even do anything Ahiru was already running off with the fishbowl on her head sloshing water everywhere.

"What the heck was that all about?" Hide muttered.

"She must've been in a big hurry," Suzuki smiled.

"We still have time until lunch is over, let's just go get something from the vending machine and meet on the roof," he sighed.

**~8~**

Of course more trouble met them when they came on the roof as they found Adam, Anna and Morita being scolded by one of the teachers. Apparently a new school rule passed that didn't allow kids to go on the roof.

Luckily for Hide, Hanabi, and Suzuki though, they managed to stop themselves from getting in trouble.

"Ah! Wait!" or so they thought, "You're Sawada Hideyoshi-san, right?"

Hide turned around and was surprised to see the assistant teacher, Kurokawa, standing at the door entrance from the roof to the stairwell.

"Uh, y-yes," the boy nodded cautiously.

"What do you want with the Twelfth, bastard?" Hanabi growled, she was still angry from the encounter they had with the strange little girl.

"Wow, you're Gokudera Hanabi-san, aren't you?" the assistant teacher said with amazement and noticed Suzuki, "And Suzuki Kouhei-san too!"

"Heh, yeah," Suzuki nodded sheepishly.

"Are you guys friends with those foreign twins and the scary looking-guy?" he asked.

_He went straight to the point!_ Hide gulped and said nervously, "Um-well-you see-um…"

"I see," the assistant teacher nodded without needing to hear anymore words said, "I guess the rumors about you are true, Hideyoshi-san."

"R-Rumors!" the boy yelped.

"Don't call the Twelfth so familiarly, bastard!" Hanabi warned.

"Yeah, rumors say that you run around the place in your underwear without a care in the world," Kurokawa continued while ignoring Hanabi's threats, "And that you're friends with really good-looking people despite looking so plain and boring. They also say that you can be very impulsive and not give a second thought about stuff."

_Everything he just said is probably the exact opposite of what really happens…_Hide thought.

"It seems that the entire student body looks up to you, Sawada-san," the assistant teacher continued, he took extra care around Hide's name when Hanabi shot him an evil glare, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but could you please look after me?"

"Wha-What!" the boy's face went red and his mouth fell open.

"Hm, maybe that was the wrong choice of words…" Kurokawa said thoughtfully and then said, "Sawada-san, if you haven't noticed, I'm not real popular with the other teachers…"

_That's because you sleep in all of the classes!_ Hide mentally added.

"And I'm not that popular with the students either," the assistant teacher added, "But all the kids, and even some of the teachers, have a bit of respect for you. This may sound awkward, but could you help me with my popularity?"

_Eh?_ Hide grimaced, _Does an _adult_ want _me_ to help him with popularity! N-No way!_

"That sounds pretty awesome, Hide," Suzuki commented.

"Hmph, as expected," Hanabi smirked, a hint of pride was in her tone, "The Twelfth _is_ the right person to ask these sorts of favors."

"He is? Then I definitely came to the right person!" Kurokawa brightened and added, "Oh yeah, and as compensation for helping me I'll let those twins and the scary guy loose! _And_ I'll owe you one, true as my word!"

"W-What if I don't?" Hide dared to ask.

"Then you all go to detention and those guys get expelled from all club activities," he said in the same bright and cheery tone.

_Morita-kun will get expelled from Boxing!_ Hide gulped and reluctantly nodded, "O-Okay then…"

"You're such a great guy, Sawada-san!" Kurokawa exclaimed as he shook Hide's hands.

"Y-Yeah…" the boy nodded, _Only because you're threatening me and my friends!_

**~8~**

The bell rang for lunch to end and Hide reluctantly went back to class. The minute he sat down at his desk the English teacher came in with Kurokawa following behind him. The lesson started. It was boring.

Hide was a little surprised that it went by so quickly; after English they had gym, which was apparently Kurokawa's forte so Hide didn't really think he had to help the assistant teacher with anything…at least until trouble arose.

"I wish we had gym in the morning instead of the afternoon," Morita huffed as the boys' group ran around the track while the girls' group was inside playing volleyball.

"That's enough you guys," Kurokawa blew the whistle around his neck, along with him there were two other assistant teachers that were also aiming to become gym teachers.

"Line up!" hollered one of the other two assistant teachers; his name was Sugiyama, nobody really knew his given name just his family name but they all knew that he was much stricter out of the three assistant teachers.

"I-Isn't Kurokawa-sensei a great gym teacher?" said Hide as he had remembered his promise to Kurokawa.

"I guess he is pretty laid-back," shrugged a boy that was standing right next to Hide, "Sugiyama-sensei looks like someone who would just make us run all day."

"Is someone bad-mouthing me!" Sugiyama hollered.

"Okay guys, since the girls are taking up the gym, today we're going to play soccer," Kurokawa ignored Sugiyama's outburst and looked over to Hide, "Sawada-san, could you pick someone to go to the shed and get the balls?"

"Um, Suzuki and Morita?" the boy gulped as he looked at his friends imploringly.

"Okay," they both nodded and followed Hide to the sports supply shed.

**~8~**

Once they reached the shed, the three boys piled all of the balls into the rolling metal basket and started their way back.

"Come back!" they turned around and saw Ahiru chasing after them with the fishbowl still balanced on her head with water sloshing out of it, "Come back!" she yelled.

"Huh?" Hide questioned, the girl grabbed onto the ball-basket and climbed up it.

"Come back!" she was still yelling, Ahiru jumped off of the ball-basket, causing it to fall over, and started to run away.

"Oh no!" Morita yelped as the balls fell out of the basket and started to run everywhere, "Quick, get them before the teacher comes!"

And as luck would have it, Kurokawa soon came along after wondering what was taking so long and he tripped on one of the balls and landed straight on the basket.

"Ow…what happened?" he groaned as he rubbed his head and slowly got up from the basket.

"Kurokawa!" Sugiyama was standing before him with some of the other students behind him, the assistant teacher's face was bright red with fury, "What are you doing knocking down the students' balls, you idiot!"

"W-Wait, Sugiyama-sensei!" Hide quickly said, "Kurokawa-sensei didn't do this, a little-"

"I don't want to hear it Sawada," the teacher said sternly and turned to the rest of the students, "All of you grab a ball and put it back in the ball-basket, if I so much as see one of them missing you're all running two times around the school!"

"Look here, Sugiyama," Kurokawa began as he stood up from his fall, "I may have been the one that knocked over all of the balls but you shouldn't take your anger out on the students."

Sugiyama rolled his eyes and said, "Just stay out of the way, Kurokawa."

His face went deep red with anger at this comment but he chose to stay out of it.

_Eh? But it wasn't Kurokawa-sensei's fault…_Hide thought as he looked from Kurokawa to Sugiyama, _But how exactly do I explain that a little girl suddenly showed up and pushed the basket over?_

**~8~**

Once gym was over, Hide immediately went with Morita and Suzuki to apologize to Kurokawa.

"It wasn't me who did that?" the assistant teacher asked in amazement.

"You thought it was you?" Hide asked.

"Well yeah, I tripped on something and I thought I was the one that pushed the basket down," he nodded.

"But Kurokawa-sensei, that wasn't you!" the boy quickly shook his head, "A little girl came running past us and pushed the ball-basket over! We were in the middle of picking up the balls when you came and tripped over one of them!"

"Is that right?" Kurokawa looked at Suzuki and Morita who both agreed to this, the man then smirked and said triumphantly, "Yes! I have something on Sugiyama now, the bastard!"

"Y-You're not mad?"

"About what? It's not your fault," he said while shrugging, "But Sugiyama's been getting on my nerves for a while now, he thinks I'm a completely useless idiot! But he falls asleep in class as well!"

_I don't think falling asleep in class necessarily counts as being an idiot…_Hide mentally added.

"Anyways, you guys better get to class," Kurokawa grinned, "I'm gonna go to the teacher's lounge and gloat to Sugiyama."

The three boys looked at each other when Kurokawa left and decided to go back to the class.

**~8~**

"Hey Boss, how was gym?" Adam greeted them cheerfully.

"Good, why weren't you there?" Hide asked suspiciously.

"I can't stand people ordering me around, Boss," the American shrugged nonchalantly, "So I definitely couldn't go to a class that was all about being ordered around."

"Why are you saying that as if it's a plausible excuse?" the young Boss asked tiredly.

"Get to your seats students," the history teacher ordered them as he came walking in with Kurokawa behind him, Hanabi entered the classroom right after they did and sat down at her desk while ignoring the teacher's disapproving look, "Gokudera?"

She darted her grayish-green eyes at him and glared, the teacher backed away a little and let the girl go. This was what generally happened whenever one of the teachers tried to punish Hanabi.

Hanabi slouched at her desk and promptly fell asleep behind Hide, while said-boy sweat dropped at how Hanabi had waved cheerfully to him before continuing her glare at the teacher.

"Alright, class, let's do attendance!" Kurokawa announced as he held out a huge binder and put down at the podium at the head of the class.

"Kurokawa, I'll be right back, I just remembered something in the teacher's lounge," their history teacher said as he walked out of the class room.

"Okay then," he nodded and looked down at the binder full of names, he began, "Ayakashi-"

It was then that the door was slid open and Ahiru came running into the classroom, Hide's mouth hung open as the whole class watched in stunned silence at the little girl who was simply running around the class with a fishbowl on her head.

"U-Um, where did you come from, little girl?" Kurokawa struggled to ask.

She looked up at him blankly before stating, "My mom."

The whole class burst into laughter at this, Kurokawa simply tried to repress the laughter and said, "Well, that's a person, little girl, what I need to know is where were you last at? Don't you have elementary school or something today?"

"Elementary school is boring and stupid," she stated simply and then added, "Plus, my pet has disappeared and Ahiru knows it came this way!"

"Pet?" the assistant teacher questioned.

"Ah!" Ahiru turned and pointed straight at Hide, "You there! You said you would help Ahiru!"

"What!" Hide's mouth fell open, "When did I say that!"

"You said you would help Ahiru!" the little girl insisted, she then began stomping her feet and chanting, "Help Ahiru! Help Ahiru!"

"N-No I didn't!" Hide shook his head and looked around desperately to find a distraction for the little girl.

"Hide, you shouldn't break promises to little girls," said Kurokawa sternly.

"I didn't promise anything!"

"Liar!" Ahiru exclaimed and started to fake-cry.

Megumi quickly got out of her desk and patted the little girl on the back, "Aw, there, there, little girl…Hide-kun, you should probably help her."

"M-Megumi-san…" the boy looked distraught and gave-in, "Fine…"

"Yaay!" Ahiru immediately brightened and latched onto Hide's arm, "Let's go! Let's go!"

"Hold on now," Kurokawa interrupted, "You guys can't just go now! I'm in the middle of class!"

"No!" the little girl stuck her tongue out at him and started to runaway while dragging Hide along for the ride.

"W-Wait!" Kurokawa called after them and then looked back at his class and said hesistantly, "Um, you all just…uh, stay in here!"

He then ran after the two, leaving the whole class stunned in amazement.

"Who wants to go get ice cream?" someone asked, the class agreed to this and spent the rest of the day getting ice cream.

**~8~**

"This way! This way!" Ahiru demanded as she ran throughout the halls of Namimori Middle.

"Do you even know where you're going!" Hide screamed.

"W-Wait!" the boy looked back and saw Kurokawa running after them.

"I forgot he's training to be a gym teacher!" he yelped and looked at Ahiru.

"No!" she refused, though there wasn't really any question that she was refusing.

"Hold on!" Kurokawa yelled.

"My life is over!" Hide cried to himself.

"Here!" Ahiru announced after suddenly stopping, this caused Hide to fly head first into the ground as he tried to avoid running the girl over.

"Gotcha!" Kurokawa said triumphantly as he swooped the girl up, "Let's take you to the teachers' room and-"

"Herbivores are crowding," they all turned around and were stunned/shocked to see the principal outside of his office.

"Principal Hibari!" Hide gulped and noticed that the principal was staring straight at Kurokawa, "I-It's not what you think! I have no clue who this girl is!" he quickly said.

The principal ignored the boy and only said one word, "Ahiru."

Hide's eyes widened in shock, he then turned to the little girl and his mouth fell open, "Huh!"

"Grandpa!" the child brightened and jumped out of Kurokawa's arms to run straight towards the principal, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Ahiru had a lot of fun today!"

"Granddaughter!" both Hide and Kurokawa's mouths fell open.

"Hn, you did, did you?" the principal said and patted her head gently, "Ahiru, why aren't you in school?"

"Ahiru lost her pet, grandpa!" she said sadly, "Ahiru tracked it to the middle school, but Ahiru still can't find it…"

"I thought so," her grandfather nodded and held out a fist, "Here."

She kept the palm of her hands open as the principal handed her something. When he lifted his hand away a small fluffy yellow bird*** was in her hands.

"Ahibird!" Ahiru said brightly and danced around with the small bird in her hands, "Ahibird! Ahibird! Thanks grandpa, for finding Ahibird for me!"

"It flew into my office," he said solidly as he gently took the fishbowl off of her head and allowed her to place the bird there, he then glanced over to Hide and Kurokawa and said coldly, "Herbivores, what are you doing crowding around my granddaughter?"

"Grandpa!" Ahiru tugged on her grandfather's pant leg before the two could even respond, "Ahiru got lost in your school, and Hide-nii and Takuma-nii helped Ahiru!"

_What's with this 'Hide-nii' and 'Takuma-nii' stuff!_ Hide thought.

Principal Hibari's gaze went from his granddaughter to the student and to assistant principal. His ominous silence seemed to last forever to Hide and Kurokawa.

"Hn, I see," the elderly man said flatly and turned around and started walking away with his granddaughter trailing after him, he took a few steps before stopping and saying, "Kurokawa Takuma, correct?"

Kurokawa gulped and said weakly, "Y-Yes, sir?"

"You are to be put in charge of Ahiru's well-being whenever she is at the middle school," he stated, there was no arguing this since Kurokawa seemed to be fearing for his life at the moment.

"Yes sir," he said obediently.

"Does that mean I can come over whenever I want to, grandpa?" Ahiru asked brightly.

"Only when you get bored of those herbivore-teachers at your school," he said solidly.

"Yay!" she cheered, the tiny yellow bird flapped its wings on her head as she danced around and clung onto Hide's arm, "Hide-nii, let's play every day!"

"Huh!" the boy's mouth fell open.

"Hide-nii is acting like a herbivore!" the little girl giggled.

"I don't even know what that means…" he groaned.

**~8~**

***The 'bucket-punishment' Suzuki is talking about may or may not be real since I've only seen it in a few manga and anime; the punishment is normally given to a students, they are forced to go out in the hallway of their class and hold a bucket full of water in both hands for an extended period of time without resting, making it feel like their arms about to come off.**

****Children in Japan will commonly refer to themselves in the third-person or by their name, this sounded adorable so that's why I'm using it for Ahiru.**

*****Ahiru's Ahibird is a slightly different breed from Hibari's Hibird, but Ahiru believes that both are baby ducks which is why she ran around the school quacking with a fishbowl on her head.**

**~8~**

**Whew! Done! I've been so busy with school and all that stuff that I haven't really thought much about my story, but I'm glad I can get this much done in…3 weeks!**

**Oh yeah, and about what the next extra will be about…I've decided to put up another poll! Just because lately I've been a huge poll-monster lol XD, the poll is on my profile and you can vote for up to two of any character you want the next extra to be on. I found it mildly hilarious when I put up a poll about Katsura asking if she should go away or not and all the answers were "YOU'RE the author, shouldn't YOU decide?" but since these extras won't particularly effect the story in anyway (unlike Katsura) I feel that this one will be more light-hearted than all my others :P**

**So I hope you all have fun with this poll and liked this chapter! :)**

**BTW Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is the baby-child of Amano Akira**


	33. Ch 33: There's a School Directory?

**I got a chapter done! In only a bit more than a week! :D! But I do have to admit that there was a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to put into this chapter that was just, in my opinion, pure amazing-ness! **

**So in this chapter: English lessons! History Lessons! Algebra Lessons! A new character! And a ten-year-later Ahiru! OoO!**

**NOTE: anything ^ ^ in it is supposed to represent being in another language, and anything with a * has a note at the bottom**

**~8~**

"^What are you talking about? The answer is totally 84!^" said Adam as he pointed at the Algebra homework in his hand, "^How the heck do you get 62?^"

"^You subtract the 12 not add it,^" his sister pointed out.

"^What?^" he questioned and examined his homework again.

Hide didn't say anything throughout this whole conversation, mainly because they were talking in English, a language that baffled Hide like most foreign languages did, at the encouragement of Reborn. The infant also encouraged them to help Hide with his studies and to only speak English to him throughout the entire study session.

"^Okay, let's do History now,^" said Anna, who was still speaking in English, she then turned slowly to Hide and said slowly and loudly, "^His-story-now.^"

"I'm not deaf," he retorted in Japanese but thought to himself, _But that did help a little_…, and he got out his History homework.

"^I'm sorry Boss, but I'm not allowed to respond to anything you say in Japanese,^" she said, still in English, she didn't sound the least bit apologetic though.

"^Oh hey, there's a guy in this text book with Boss's name,^" said Adam while looking at the History book, "^It says here his name is Toyotomi Hideyoshi and that he was a samurai.^"

"Are you guys talking about Toyotomi Hideyoshi?" Hide asked with interest as he flipped through his book, "You know, my dad partly named me after him because my grandfather and my great-grandfather were both named after samurais*."

**~8~**

_Geh…_Hanabi bit the bottom of her lip in anguish as she watched the study group from the crack in the door of Hide's bedroom, _I want to go in there and say 'How interesting Twelfth!' But I don't know English, dammit!_

So while Hanabi was continuing to mourn for the fact that she didn't know English, Reborn was torturing Hide with the fact that he also didn't know English.

**~8~**

"^Let's take a break,^" Adam sighed and looked over to Reborn, "^I seriously don't think Boss understands a word we're saying.^"

"^Fine then,^" Reborn shrugged, he looked at Hide and said in Japanese, "We're going to take a break, and you're going to stay in here until you understand English more."

"^What!^"

"^Bye Boss,^" the twins waved and started to leave the room, they both stopped though when they saw Hanabi spying through the crack in the door. _What the heck…?_ Hide gawked.

"Oh, Smoking Bomb," Adam greeted her, "You shouldn't be bothering Boss when he's busy with his studies."

"Shut up! Don't you think I know that?" she barked at him.

"Then why were you kneeling on the ground while looking through the crack in Boss's bedroom door?" asked Anna.

"Geh!" Hanabi paled, both the twins walked past her before she could say anything else and she also turned straight around and started yelling at them for thinking that she was weak or some nonsense.

This left Hide alone with Reborn.

"Quit slacking and learn English," Reborn commanded in the foreign language.

"I have no clue what you just said," Hide grumbled as he looked back at his text book, he then realized something about it and shot a look at Reborn, "Did you change all the words in my books to English!"

"Quit slacking and learn English," the infant commanded again, except this time Hide noticed that it was actually a doll that was telling him this.

"What the hell!" he cried out to no one in general.

**~8~**

Meanwhile, hiding in the bush of the Sawada residence's front yard, a evil glare could be felt from a passerby. Which, in this case, would be Ahiru, who had wanted to play with Hide today.

"Hn?" she stopped and stared at the bush for a few seconds before walking over to it and taking off her yellow rain boot to throw at it.

"Gah!" the girl could hear something yelp.

She jumped into the bush and rustled in it before coming back out, in one hand: her yellow rain boot, in the other: a boy that was her age whom she was holding by the white hair on his head.

"Ahiru got you!" Ahiru smiled to herself.

"Let go of me!" the boy demanded.

"Okay," she nodded and let go of him, a little yellow bird flew overhead until it landed softly on Ahiru's black hair.

The boy dusted himself off before standing straight up and pointing at Ahiru, "How dare you harm a person sent directly from the Bovino Family!" he yelled accusingly, "I, Nico Bovino, demand an apology!"

Ahiru stared at him blankly for a few seconds before turning her head slightly and saying, "Che, herbivore…"

"Don't look down on me when saying that!" he yelled angrily, his face was vivid red.

"What's with all the yelling here!" Hanabi roared as she slid open the door harshly and glared at the two kids in the Sawada residence's frontyard, she eyed them both for a second before saying darkly, with a pack of cards in her hand, "Trespassers will be blown to pieces…"

"Gokudera-san!" Hide yelped from the window on the second floor, "Don't use those things in my front yard!"

"Anything you say, Twelfth!" she immediately obeyed and the cards seemed to disappear her hand.

"Thank goodness," He sighed with relief and noticed the two children in his front yard, he recognized only one, "H-Hibari-chan? What are you doing here!"

"Hide-nii!" Ahiru smiled brightly at him, "Ahiru wanted to come play with Hide-nii!"

"B-But how did you know where I lived?" he asked.

"Ahiru looked in the school directory!"

"We have a school directory?" he questioned.

"Ahiru really wanted to come and play with Hide-nii today!" she said brightly.

"Wait, then whose that right next to you?" he asked.

"Um," Ahiru turned and stared at the boy, who still looked like he was demanding an apology from her, and turned back to Hide to say bluntly, "He's a herbivore I found in the bush!"

"Quit calling me that!" he yelled.

"H-Herbivore huh?" the teen sweat-dropped and sighed, "Fine, Gokudera-san, can you let them both in?"

"Of course Twelfth!" she said brightly.

"I'll come down in a sec then," he said.

**~8~**

"Whose this?" Adam asked upon seeing the two kids.

"Ahiru is Ahiru!" the little girl chirped happily, she then pointed to the bird on her head and said, "And this is Ahibird!"

"What a stupid name for a bird," the boy next to her scoffed, "I know, since you call me herbivore, I'm going to call you Duck!"

"That makes no sense," she said flatly, "Ahiru already said that she was Ahiru**."

"Apparently these two brats found the Twelfth's home by looking in the school directory," Hanabi shrugged.

"There's a school directory?" Adam questioned.

Hide soon came rolling down the stairs, he was kicked by Reborn at the top of the staircase since he wasn't doing his studies, and he greeted the two children.

"Boss, isn't this that girl that randomly ran into our class the other day while asking you for help?" asked Adam.

"And isn't she the one that was called me 'meanie' and was quacking at you?" asked Hanabi in a slightly more threatening tone.

"W-Well, it turns out that she's the granddaughter of our principal…" Hide began sheepishly, "And she found my house by looking in the school directory."

"There's a school directory?" asked Anna, who had walked into the conversation and noticed the white-haired boy that was shooting a dirty look at Ahiru, "Who's this?"

"I," the boy began proudly, "am Nico Bovino, a prestigious member of the Bovino Family, here to help the young Twelfth Vongola with his training to become the next Vongola Boss and to become his Thunder Guardian!"

"My what?" Hide raised an eyebrow and then said, "You really shouldn't be calling others 'young' when their older than you."

"You're Thunder Guardian!" the boy said with even more pride while ignoring the last comment Hide made, "The Great Nico Bovino is gracing your Gua-GAH!"

Reborn kicked the child in the face and said flatly, "We're not at that part of the story yet, idiot."

"Huh? Reborn, what's going on?" the young Boss questioned.

"Don't worry about it yet, Hide," the infant said dismissively, "You won't have to worry about for at least a few months now."

"What?" he questioned with even more confusion.

"Boss, do you want us to kill this brat?" Anna asked.

"What kind of question is that!" Hide snapped out of his confusion and yelled, "Of course I don't!"

"Yeah!" Nico stuck his tongue out at her, "Boss has me under his protection!"

"Wha-! How did we already get to calling me 'Boss'!" he asked.

"Boss, can I please kill this brat?" Anna asked, Hide noticed a dark aura surrounding her that only Adam was oblivious to.

"How did you get to hating each other already!" the blonde Japanese's mouth fell open.

"Bring it on, American, the Boss is going to protect me no matter what, right Boss?" Nico said eagerly.

"W-What? When did I ever say that?" he sweat-dropped, "Wait, where did you even come from?"

"I just found them in the front yard," Hanabi shrugged.

"Ahiru found the herbivore grazing in the bush!" Ahiru chirped happily.

"I'm from Italy!" Nico yelled, "I'm not from the Boss's yard or from a bush!"

"Why were you in my bush?" Hide asked while knowing that he would probably dread the answer.

"I wanted to surprise you, Boss!" he said eagerly.

"You could have just gone up to my front door!" the teen yelled.

"That would be too boring," the child frowned.

_What sort of reasoning is that…?_ Hide gaped.

"Besides," Nico continued as he searched the contents of his backpack, "I have brought gifts from the Bovino Family!"

"Gifts?" he asked warily.

"Gifts!" Ahiru brightened and hugged him, "You're officially Ahiru's new best herbivore!"

"Get off of me!" Nico yelled and fell over with the backpack in his arms, a large purple bazooka flew out when he hit the ground and it flew into the air where it landed on both Ahiru and Nico.

Before Hide could even comprehend anything that was going on, pink smoke filled the room and only two figures were standing where Ahiru and Nico were. Hide coughed and struggled to find a window to open, but when he did the smoke seemed to clear straight out and the two figures were revealed to be a boy and a girl that looked like they were a few years older than Hide.

"Wh-Who the hell are you guys!" the blonde haired Japanese screamed while pointing an accusing finger at them both.

"And I had just gotten back from buying strawberries…" the girl said with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice; she had pale-white skin, long black hair and narrow onyx-colored eyes that seemed to make her quite attractive. But the Namimori high school uniform that she was wearing and the prefect jacket that hung around her shoulders threw Hide off completely, mainly because he had never seen a girl anywhere in Namimori that wore a prefect jacket like a delinquent. Her face looked extremely angry as she stood shockingly still with a grocery bag in her hand.

"Geez, I was taking such a nice nap before this had to happen…" said the boy lazily as he rubbed the back of his snow-white head sheepishly, he was thin, tall, and had short blond hair. The white button-down shirt and brown pants seemed to suggest that he had come out of some fluff-filled romance novel, his looks didn't seem to reject this suggestion at all either. He also looked really tired since there were dark circles underneath his eyelids.

"Yo," Adam was the first to talk them.

"D-Don't just say 'hi' to them so casually!" Hide hissed.

"Well what else are we going to do?" the other shrugged.

"Hn? Where am I?" the older girl asked as she looked around her unfamiliar surroundings.

"That's right," the older boy said tiredly and yawned, "I should probably be more bothered, but I'm too tired…"

_Who the heck are these guys!_ Hide wondered, _And where did Hibari-chan and that Nico-kid go!_

"They _are_ Ahiru and Nico," said Reborn, the young Boss turned around to the infant and gave the hitman an 'Are-you-serious!' look, "Fine, if you don't believe me," the hitman turned to the girl and boy and asked, "Hey, what are your names?"

"Nico Bovino," the tired boy answered obediently.

"Oh, Reborn-chan, I didn't see you there," the girl nodded at him and answered solidly, "Hibari Ahiru."

"Wait, Reborn-san?" teen-Nico peered at the child, "Wow, it really is Reborn-san! It's been a while!"

"A while! You guys just met like ten minutes ago!" Hide's mouth fell open.

"Oh yeah, I must've been hit by the ten-year-bazooka," Nico nodded knowingly and saw the lost look on everybody else's face, "The ten-year-bazooka is like a time-machine of sorts, it switches the places of you and yourself ten years later for five minutes."

"What? How the heck does it do that?" Hide asked.

"Um, well," the other teen began and gave a lengthy pause before replying, "…a Bovino-Family Secret."

"You actually don't know, do you?" he paled and thought, _So then that means that this is adult-Nico-san and adult-Hibari-chan?_

"How boring," teen-Ahiru stated flatly, "What a boring explanation, if what you say is true then this," she pointed at Hide, "Would be Hide-nii, but I don't remember Hide-nii ever being a herbivore, the Hide-nii I know is a carnivore with only herbivore-like tendencies."

_I have no clue what any of that means!_ he became paler.

"I'm leaving," she announced, there was no question in her tone.

"You better stop her Hide," Reborn warned, "If she goes out around town and your principal sees her, then something bad might happen to the future."

Hide automatically agreed to this idea and ran over to stop Ahiru from leaving his house, "W-Wait!" he yelped, "If what Nico-san says is true, then I can't let you leave!"

"Don't try to stop me," she said darkly.

_Hieee! Why is Ahiru so scary when she grows up!_ Hide whimpered and gulped down his fear, "I-I can't let you leave!"

**~8~**

The result of this was two black eyes and a bruise on his chest from a pair of tonfas that seemed to magically appear in Ahiru's hands.

"Wait," Reborn interjected, "I can't let you leave this house without saying something to Hide in English."

Ahiru closed her eyes and said, "Fine." When she opened them again she knelt down to the fallen-Hide and said something in English, then she left without saying anything more.

The boy groaned in pain while Nico kneeled down to him and said, "Don't worry; the ten-year-bazooka's effects should wear off in two and half minutes."

"That bitch…I don't know who she was, but beating up the Twelfth is unforgiveable!" Hanabi grumbled, a pack of cards appeared in her hand and she started to get up, "I'll find that bitch and blow her away!"

"Y-You don't have to do that, Gokudera-san!" the young Boss yelped and frantically tried to stop her from going on a bombing raid around Namimori.

"I see that Gokudera-san is and will always be the same," Nico commented.

"Oh yeah, uh, what exactly did Hibari-chan say before she left?" Hide asked.

"Um," Adam and Anna bother looked at each other uncertainly before Adam said sheepishly, "I don't think you want to know, Twelfth."

_Was it something that bad!_ Hide's mouth fell open.

"If she said something that made fun of the Twelfth-!" Hanabi began angrily.

"It wasn't bad," Anna interrupted her, "and she didn't sound like she had an accent at all, but what she said didn't really make sense."

"Well what was it?"

The twins looked at each other before looking back at Hide and saying in unison, "I'll be waiting for you, herbivore."

"Again with this 'herbivore' and 'carnivore' stuff!" he groaned, "Come to think of it, the principal says that kind of stuff too. Are they both into animal documentaries of something!"

"That does sound like something Boots would say," Nico yawned.

"Boots?" Hide questioned his choice in nickname.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I decided that was her nickname when I was younger," he shrugged and added, "Because, you know, she always wears boots. Didn't you notice?"

"Oh yeah," they all recalled that the teen-Ahiru was wearing red rain boots.

"What a weird habit to have," Hide muttered.

"Well, my time is almost up," the teen-Nico said while staring at his watch sleepily.

"Wait," said Reborn, "Before you leave you have to say something in English to Hide."

"Oh right," Nico nodded, "Well unlike my younger-self, I'm actually fluent in more than one language. Very well, I shall say this Twelfth, _au revoir***_."

"That's French," Hide pointed out.

"Wha-?" the teen began but then a cloud of pink smoke filled the room and quickly left via the window, all that was there was Nico, who was taking a nap.

"What a useless idiot," said Reborn, "I guess that idiocy runs in that bloodline."

"What are you even talking about?" Hide asked.

Something started beeping and Hanabi took out her cell phone and checked a message on it, "Oh, sorry Twelfth, my idiot brother thinks I've been kidnapped again," she sighed as she put the phone away, "I'm sorry I have to go, I was completely useless today…"

"Um, it's seriously no problem," he quickly said, he would have honestly liked it if she wasn't trying to 'help' every five seconds.

"^Bye Twelfth!^" she said in English, thus allowing Reborn to let her pass.

Anna looked at the small child that was still taking a nap and picked him up gently, "^I'm going to hang this kid upside down over the river bed, Boss,^" she said to Hide in English with a kind smile on her face.

Hide nodded and said, "Um, okay, go for it," he then looked over to Adam and asked, "What did she say?"

"Uh, it's probably best that you _don't_ know, Boss," the brother said before following his sister out the door.

"Ack! Wait, _he_ didn't have to say anything English to me!" Hide yelled.

"That's because he's a native-born speaker, he doesn't have to," was the infant's answer.

"That's so not fair!"

"Life isn't fair," Reborn stated and hit Hide with a textbook, "Now in order to get dinner, you must memorize all the phrases that you heard today."

"What!"

**~8~**

"Oh come on," Suzuki breathed as he tried to start the engine of the old hovercycle, his endeavor failed since the machine refused to begin and just sputtered a little, "Come on, the sushi is going to get spoiled at this rate…"

He looked up when he heard some boots squeak behind him and turned around, he saw a girl with straight black hair, in the Namimori high school uniform with a prefect's jacket draped around her shoulders like a stereo-typical delinquent would. In one of her hands was a grocery bag, and on her feet were a pair of red rain boots.

"Um," Suzuki began, she seemed to ignored him as she walked forwards and stopped in front of the hovercycle. The girl gave it a good kick with her rain boots and the machine's engine suddenly began whirring as if nothing had ever happened to it.

"Huh? What?" he looked from the hovercycle to the girl and over again, "Uh, um, th-thanks!" he stammered and waved as she started to leave, he then remembered something and got out a package out of the cooler that was tied to the hovercycle, "Wait! Here, it's sushi from Takesushi, have you heard of that place before?"

The girl stopped and stared at the package silently.

"Well here, think of it as an appreciation gift for helping me," he smiled sheepishly.

She looked up at him and in one swift movement she took the package and started walking away quickly. Suzuki watched with interest as she turned the corner and saw a cloud of pink smoke appear right after she did. He ran over to the corner and peered around the corner. There was no one in sight.

"That's weird," he muttered to himself and looked down to see a notebook with the Namimori school's crest on it and underneath the crest read: School Directory.

"We have a school directory?" he questioned and looked down the street.

**~8~**

Ahiru blinked and found herself standing in the middle of the street.

"Ahiru thought she was at Hide-nii's house…?" she questioned herself and started to run towards Hide's house.

**~8~**

***Interesting history fact! Tsuna and his dad, Iemitsu, are possibly named after the samurais Tokugawa Iemitsu and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi! I realized this and decided to open up my World History textbook and pick the first samurai name that I see to be this story's main character's name, which happened to be Toyotomi Hideyoshi. So no, I did not pick Hide's name because it had '-yoshi' at the end like Tsuna's and because 'Hide' made a very catchy nickname...even though it does.'s**

****Ahiru means 'duck' in Japanese, Nico's pretty slow on the uptake and he's not that clever.**

*****Nico said "Good bye" in French**

**~8~**

**Well, that's the end of this chapter! You can wait for another irregular update or go onto my forum, Just another Forum and chat it up with me and some awesome people.**

**Or if you liked the extras I put out, you can vote for which character the next extra will focus on in my profile! :D**

**KHR is copyrighted by Amano Akira.**


	34. Ch 34: Quiz Time!

**I apologize for not updating in a while, this chapter is mainly just a bunch of fluff but I hope it's enjoyable.**

**Since the theme for this chapter seems to be 'game show' and the questions are just trivia about the characters of Skywards and one KHR question, I have put down the questions as underlined and the answers in bold…I don't know what I was thinking when I decided this but I thought it would be fun…for some reason. Now I know better.**

**Hope you like this chapter and please read and review! :)**

**EDIT!: *blushes* Thank you Nehszriah for pointing out my fault! The part where Anna loses her remote and she explains why was only half of a sentence, such an amateur mistake! XoX If you happen to read over this, please read all the way through! For the integrity of my story! I feel so foolish now! D:**

**~8~**

Hide was currently in a race against time with Reborn. The tutor held a book open in one hand, a timer in the other and a case of dynamite underneath him, which he had no doubt gotten from Hanabi.

"If you get the next question right, I'll give you a hint for which wire to cut," said Reborn in his usual casual tone.

"Just get on with it already!" Hide screamed as he shakily held a pair of scissors in his hands and stared at the dynamite.

"Very well then," his tutor shrugged and asked, "What is an example of a polar molecule?"

"Uh, um…" the blonde haired Japanese sweated as his eyes darted from the dynamite to Reborn, he gulped, "W-Water?"

"Correct!" the infant announced and then continued, "Here's the hint to the wire then, do not cut the red wire."

"There are no red wires!"

"Then that proves your not color blind also."

"Just get on with the next question!"

"What are the three types of isomers?" he asked and then added, "I'll tell you another hint to which wire to cut for this one also."

"Um, um," he began shakily, _Shit! I don't have a clue what the hell an isomer is!_ "Uh, structural?"

"And?"

"Geometric, and…uh…"

"Go on."

"D-Dipole?" he asked meekly.

"Wrong," Reborn stated sourly, "The answer was structural, geometric, and enantiomers."

"What the heck does this have to do with the Mafia!" Hide yelped, "Isomers have to do with atoms and stuff like that!"

"A Vongola Boss knows everything about the universe," his tutor said this as if it was fact, a very unrealistic fact, yet a fact nonetheless, "But a student of mine that doesn't even know this doesn't deserve to live."

After saying that, the timer hit 0 and Hide embraced himself for the explosion. A few seconds for something to happen made the boy build up the courage to look up at Reborn, who was still sitting on the case of dynamite with a pair of Leon-scissors in his hand. A blue wire was cut.

"Stupid-Hide, everyone knows it's the blue wire that you cut," the infant scoffed.

"I think that's only you that knows that, Reborn," Hide muttered as the doorbell rang and he went downstairs to answer it, "Geez, that whole thing practically gave me a heart-attack, Reborn just suddenly woke me up and threatened to blow the entire house up if I didn't answer all those questions right."

He opened the door and had to look up to see Morita's face.

"Hey Hide!" the taller boy waved cheerfully, he held up a bag and said, "I got that game that you wanted to borrow."

"You do?" Hide brightened and moved aside, "Come on in, do you want something to drink?"

"No thanks," he answered and walked on in he looked around before asking sheepishly, "I'm not interrupting you from anything, am I?"

"Oh gosh no!" the blonde haired boy shook his head quickly, "If anything I think you saved me!"

"From what?"

"Ciaossu, Sakuraba."

"From that," Hide sighed miserably as Reborn appeared on the stair's railing.

"Heya, kiddo," Morita waved to him.

"You interrupted an intense study session between me and Hide, Sakuraba," the infant stated, "But I will forgive you if you join in on the upcoming study session with us."

"What?" the boxer questioned before laughing it off as if it was a joke, "Sure, why not? If this will help me in school, I might as well! Haha!"

_Morita-kun, this isn't a joke…_Hide thought worriedly.

"Good, then the next session will be in the living room, come," Reborn ordered, he jumped off the railing and strolled on into the living room.

Hide followed while silently praying that the next 'study session' would not lead to anything involving explosives and sharp objects. When they walked in, they were both greeted with bright lights and neon colors, there were podiums lined up against each side of the room and a large screen in the center. Hide's living room now looked like a game show.

"W-What happened to my house…?" the resident of the home asked slowly.

"Relax, Boss," said Anna, who appeared from behind one of the podiums with a remote control in her hand, "It's just holograms."

"Holograms?"

As proof, Anna pressed one of the buttons on her remote and the game show set instantaneously reverted itself into a normal living room with a couch, armchair, TV, and coffee table. She pressed the button again and everything turned back into the game show setting.

"Somehow, this doesn't help…" Hide grimaced.

"Wow!" Morita said with dazzled eyes as he walked around the show's set and waved a hand through one of the holographic podiums, "This is so cool!"

"Stop doing that," Anna said coldly and kicked the boxer in the back, she looked back at her remote and said, "You can't be wearing those clothes if your going to be on my set, here," she pressed a button and suddenly Morita changed from his green and yellow jersey and cargo pants to a red blazer with a white t-shirt underneath and dark jeans.

"Woah!" the boxer said in awe, "What happened to my clothes?"

"It's still a hologram, you idiot," she stated and looked at Hide, "You'll need to change too, Boss."

"What?" before he could protest, Hide found that his clothes had been changed to a blue t-shirt with a black necktie around his neck and khaki pants.

"Much better," she said with satisfaction and turned her attention back to the remote in her hand.

"Wait, what's going on in the first place?" Hide asked in complete bafflement, "Reborn, could you explain?"

"I thought this would be an interesting way to test your knowledge of all of your Family members," the infant replied.

"Did you have to go so far with the holograms?"

"Yes," he stated and added, "Look, the others have come also."

"What?" Hide began to question but stopped when he saw Hanabi, Adam, Suzuki, Nagi, Ahiru, Nico, and Megumi entered.

As each person walked into the room, their outfits changed almost completely. Suzuki, who's clothes had changed from a white sweater and jeans to a blue vest with a black t-shirt underneath and light blue jeans, approached Hide cheerfully.

"Looks like we're on the same team, Hide!" he said while swinging his arm around the boy.

"Team?" Hide questioned.

"Twelfth!" Hanabi yelped, when she entered the room her shirt had dyed itself red and a matching head band in her hair appeared, her skirt was black and had a red skull decorating it, "I'm sorry, Twelfth! I can't believe I'm not on the same team as you!"

"Hold on, what are you guys talking about?" he asked.

"Did Mr. Reborn not tell you yet, Hide?" Adam asked eagerly, he was wearing a red polo-shirt with white strips along the sleeves and khaki pants.

"Tell me what?" he asked while staring suspiciously at Reborn.

"Oh that's right," the infant nodded as if he had just remembered something, "This is the 'study session' for you and your Family members, Hide: you are all divided up into teams based on the colors you are wearing: Blue and Red. The two teams that go up against each other will have to answer a series of questions about someone you all know, if the question is about someone on your team then that person is not allowed to answer the question or tell their teammates or the other team the answer. And for questions about certain people only, a person from each team will not be allowed to answer. You'll be rewarded a point for each question you get correct and the team that reaches 4 points will win."

"What kind of study session is this?" Hide questioned with his mouth hanging open in horror.

He was quickly growing resentful of Reborn's games until Megumi, who was wearing a blue tank-top and a black skirt came over to him and giggled, "Looks like I'm on your team, Hide-kun."

_Reborn, you're the greatest tutor on earth!_ he thought to himself happily.

"I guess you guys are on my team then?" Morita asked while staring at Nagi, Hanabi, Adam and Nico.

"Hmph! Don't worry underlings, I'll definitely get the prize!" Nico laughed loudly, he had a white sweater and pants, a red 'N' decorated the back and front of his sweater.

"Who said anything about there being a prize?" Nagi asked as he watched the little boy jump up and down in amusement, he was wearing a red hoodie that had a black skull and crossbones on his chest with dark colored jeans.

"Oh yeah," said Anna as she continued pressing buttons on her remote, "The prize is something really amazing, something that only the Vongola could achieve."

"That's right," Reborn nodded, "The prize is a legendary Vongola treasure that has amazing powers and abilities to it."

"Amazing powers?" Hide asked skeptically.

"Ahiru wants it!" Ahiru exclaimed eagerly, one could almost see the stars in her childish eyes; her clothes had become a blue dress with blue boots on her feet, Ahibird was flapping its little wings excitedly when she said, "Hide-nii, let's beat those herbivores to a pulp!"

"Th-Then I guess I'll try, Hibari-chan," Hide shrugged and thought, _I might as well go with it, it's not like anything bad will happen if I lose…_

"The team that loses will have to go through a horrible punishment that will be administered by me," said Reborn.

"Let's win this guys!" Hide exclaimed to his teammates and took a quick head count of them, "Wait, we only have four people here, and Red Team has five, right?"

"Good point, Hide," his tutor said, "Don't worry, she'll be here soon."

"She?"

"Hello, young Twelfth," Rosario greeted, Hide and the rest of his teammates nearly jumped when they realized that she was right behind them. She was wearing a black suit jacket with a blue blouse underneath and black pants. Upon seeing her, both Hanabi and Nagi fell to the ground in pain.

"Anna," said Reborn, she nodded and pressed a few buttons on her remote, a pair of blue-shaded goggles appeared over Rosario's face.

"Oh papa, I wish you would tell me before you did these kinds of things first," Rosario sighed while adjusting her holographic goggles.

"F-For some reason I feel better…" Hanabi muttered as she shakily stood back up with her brother.

"Me too," he agreed weakly.

"That explanation is for another time," Reborn stated and jumped onto the podium at the center of the room.

"Get to your places," said Anna, the remote she was holding became a long thin stick with a black sphere at the tip, "We're starting in five, four…three…two…one…"

**~8~**

"This is 'So You Think You Know Each Other?' with me, Anna Grandhart," Anna announced in a slightly monotone voice while she held up the long, thin microphone in her hand.

"And me, Home Tutor Hitman Reborn," said Reborn.

"What are you guys doing?" Hide asked.

"Don't ruin our fun," the infant said after he had kicked his student in the face.

"Let's introduce our players for today, Mr. Reborn," Anna suggested, "In the Blue Team, we have the soon-to-be Twelfth Vongola Boss, Sawada Hideyoshi."

"Ow…" he muttered while rubbing his nose.

"The baseball player who's a genius musician, Suzuki Kouhei."

"Is this part of the Mafia Game too?" Suzuki asked while smiling cheerfully.

"Namimori Middle School's idol, Tanaka Megumi."

"Idol?" she questioned.

"An Outside Advisor and skilled sniper, Rosario."

"Hello."

"And the little girl who will, without a doubt, one day become a horrible and feared delinquent, Hibari Ahiru."

"Ahiru will beat any herbivores that get in her way!" the little girl said with determination.

"Mr. Reborn?" Anna nodded to him.

"Very well then," Reborn nodded back to her and jumped onto the Red Team's podium, "Over in the Red Team, we have the idiot-boxer who has a scary face, Sakuraba Morita."

"What?" Morita asked.

"The idiot-part of an assassination team, Adam Grandhart."

"Hello," the foreigner smiled.

"A bombs-expert who hates bombs and is the idiotic self-proclaimed right-hand to Hide, Gokudera Hanabi."

"I wanted to be on the Twelfth's team," Hanabi cried to herself.

"The idiot who is on possibly a thousand drugs at the moment, Gokudera Nagi."

"It's only twenty-six tranquilizers," Nagi said as if it was nothing, and then added as an afterthought, "And they're prescribed by doctors!"

"And an idiot."

"My name is Nico Bovino!"

"So now that we've introduced everybody," Reborn continued while ignoring what the contestants said, "Let's get the game started."

"Right," Anna nodded and pressed a button on her microphone, a large screen appeared out of no where and a picture of someone's face appeared on it, it was Hide's picture.

"The question for this round is: Who traumatized the Boss when he was little?" Anna asked and added, "There are three people for this round that are not allowed to answer: Boss, Suzuki Kouhei, and Gokudera Hanabi."

"Dammit," Hanabi bit her fingernail; of course she knew everything there was to know about Hide, which doesn't sound the least bit creepy at all.

"I know this one!" Morita yelled and hit the buzzer that was on his podium, "It's his granddad, right?"

"Which one?" Anna asked, "His dad's dad or his mom's dad?"

"Um," the boxer hesitated for a second before saying uncertainly, "His…**his dad's dad**?"

The sound of a bell ringing occurred and Anna said, in a still monotone voice, "Yay, you're right. You're team gets one point."

"Let's try and get the next one everybody!" Suzuki cheered his teammates on.

"The next question," Anna began and pushed the button on her microphone again, a picture of Colonello appeared, "What relation does Colonello have with Boss's gramps, Yamamoto Takeshi? Everybody can answer in this round."

"I think I know," Hide said uncertainly and hit the buzzer on the Blue Team's podium, "**He's gramps' old friend from his mafia days**, right?"

The bell rang loudly, "Correct! A point goes to the Blue Team."

"Now for the next question," said Reborn, "How old are Morita's younger brothers? The people who are not allowed to answer this one is Sakuraba Morita, Tanaka Megumi and Adam Grandhart."

"Me? Why me?" Adam asked.

"Because I said so," the infant said with a straight face.

"I think I know this one too," said Hide with a look of surprise on his face, he looked over to Morita and said, "Morita-kun told me when we were at the beach, **they're eight and five**, right?"

"That's right," Morita nodded with the same amount of surprise as Hide, the bell rang loudly and he said, "I'm amazed you still remember that, Hide."

"Well, you did tell me it recently…"

"If by recently you mean a month ago," the boxer pointed out, he smiled when he saw that the blonde haired Japanese was fretting over it and said, "Thanks though, Hide, for remembering."

"Quit saying thanks to each other!" Nico interrupted the cheery moment that was going on between the two, "You're both on different teams, and we're losing! We need points!"

"Don't tell us what to do, brat," Hanabi scolded the child, "If you're so eager to get points, why don't you start answering questions."

"I don't see you doing anything, stupid girl!" the boy stuck a tongue out at her.

"You little…" the bomber began with a deck of cards in her hand but was stopped when Nico tripped over himself when he was backing away, a large purple bazooka came out of his hair and landed on in causing pink smoke to go everywhere.

"What happened?" Hide coughed and saw a figure emerge from the pink smoke wearing a red button up shirt and white pants, "Adult-Nico?"

"How troublesome," a teenaged Nico sighed and looked around, "It seems that my environment has changed along with my clothes."

"I made preparations in advance incase this would happen," Anna explained.

"Idiot-Nico, you are in the middle of a game show," said Reborn, "The question is: What type of weapon does Suzuki use? The people who are not allowed to answer are Suzuki, Morita, and Hide."

"That one's easy, **Mr. Suzuki uses a sword**," Nico yawned and hit the buzzer gently.

"Correct," Anna said monotonously as the bell rang.

"No fair!" Ahiru frowned, "The herbivore grew into a bigger herbivore!"

"Well," Reborn began with the Ten Year Bazooka in his hand, "It's only fair…"

"W-Wait, Reborn, what are thinking of doing with that!" Hide yelped as the infant pointed it at Hibari and pulled the trigger.

Pink smoke filled the room once more, nobody could see for a bit but they could all see a figure emerge from the pink smoke.

"I will bite to death whatever herbivore disturbed me from my sleep and put me in this outfit," a voice said threateningly, Hide winced at the memory of pain that this person had last inflicted onto him.

"H-Hibari-chan?" he squeaked, the black haired girl emerged from the smoke wearing a light blue dress with blue rain boots on, not to mention the long black overcoat that was still draped around her shoulders.

She turned her attention on Hide and asked darkly, "Was it you, fake-Hide-nii?"

"Hieee!" the boy squealed in horror.

"Hide-kun, you must have some pretty poor ventilation with all of this smoke around," Megumi coughed as little clouds of pink smoke surrounded her, once all of the smoke was cleared she looked up and came eye-to-eye with teen-Ahiru, "Wow, what a pretty girl! Is she your friend, Hide-kun?"

"Y-You could say that…" he trembled.

"Oh, it's you!" Suzuki exclaimed when he saw the girl.

She gave him a blank stare before saying, "Oh, right."

"Ahiru," Reborn began, "You are in the middle of a game show right now and you're on the Blue Team. Would you be willing to lend your services for this?"

Ahiru closed her eyes and was silent for a few seconds, as if she was tossing the idea around in her head, before she pointed at the Blue Team and asked, "I'm with these herbivores?"

"That is correct."

"Very well then," she crossed her arms against her blue dress, "I will do it for the favor I owe the black haired herbivore and for you, Reborn-chan."

"Haha, she talks the same way as Ahiru-chan does!" Suzuki laughed.

"But I will bite to death who ever had put me in this outfit without my own knowledge…" she said darkly, Anna went back to pressing buttons on her microphone-remote.

"Glad to have you on our team!" Suzuki grinned widely.

"I hate owing others favors," she stated.

"The next question," Reborn began, "What special weapon does Adam use against the God Box, Nyx? Only Adam is not allowed to answer this question."

"What? Nobody even saw that fight though, except for Adam and Nyx," Hide argued.

"**Electrically-charged daggers**," Ahiru answered flatly.

"Correct," Anna chimed as the bell rang once more, "A point goes to the Blue Team."

The young Boss' mouth fell open, "I don't think I want to know how you knew the answer…"

"Ahiru's from the future," Reborn explained, "The likely-hood that the Adam Grandhart in the future told her is rather high."

"I have now repaid the favor to you, herbivore," she said flatly.

"Favor?" Hide questioned and looked at Suzuki, "Did you do something for her?"

"I only gave her a box of sushi," he shrugged.

"Blue Team is now ahead of Red Team by one point," Anna announced, she looked over to the Red Team and said, "You guys will definitely lose at this rate."

"Way to root for your brother, Anna," Adam sighed.

"I try," she shrugged and pressed a button on her remote, "The next question," a picture of Hanabi showed up on it and the twin sister continued, "What is Gokudera Hanabi scared of?"

"What kind of question is that!" Hanabi yelled, her face was red with both fury and embarrassment.

A buzzer went off and Nagi said cheerfully, "**She's scared of explosions**!"

"Correct," Anna said in the same monotone voice she had been using before.

"I am _not_ afraid of explosions!" the younger Gokudera protested.

"Come on now, Hanabi, you don't have to deny it," her older brother said with a serene smile on his face.

"I'll show you denial!" Hanabi threatened, a pack of cards was in her hands.

"What!" Hide's mouth dropped open when he saw the familiar and explosive pack of cards, "W-Wait! Gokudera-san!"

"Are we playing cards now?" asked Suzuki.

"Geez, scary girl sure gets angry easily," Morita sighed.

"Don't call me scary!" she snapped, one of the cards in her hand flew out and when it landed on the ground it exploded.

"What just happened?" Megumi coughed as smoke surrounded her and everyone else.

"It would be wise to evacuate all innocent bystanders now, Rosario," Reborn said to his daughter.

"Okay, papa!" she nodded and took Megumi's arm and led her outside of the house.

"Anna, I would also suggest that you turn the holograms off now," the infant said to her.

"That's going to be a problem, Mr. Reborn," the foreigner said.

"Why?"

"I don't have my remote…" she said and paled a little, "I think it must've fallen out of my hands when the Smoking Bomb threw her card..."

"That would be a problem," the infant nodded, smoke was still everywhere but he could vaguely see his student fumbling through the debris, Leon crept onto the tutor's hand and formed itself into a gun, "And here's the solution."

He shot the Leon-gun and about ten seconds later a powerful roar from a certain Japanese boy with blonde hair and who was only wearing blue and white striped boxers.

"MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS ALRIGHT WITH MY DYING WILL!" Hide roared, the orange flame on his forehead was alit and flickered, "VENTILATE THE AREA!"

He ran over to the glass screen door that separated his living room and his front yard and slid it open harshly while screaming, "VENTILATE!"

"Use Leon," said Reborn as he tossed Leon over to Hide.

The boy grabbed Leon, which turned into a giant fan, and started to fiercely fan all of the smoke out of the room while yelling, "VENTILATE! VENTILATE!"

Once it was cleared, Hide turned back to everyone and yelled, "IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT!"

There were a few mutters of 'Yeah's and 'I think so's, Ahiru was the only one that didn't respond.

"How unsightly," she muttered when she saw Hide in his underwear screaming, she stood up to leave and said, "I'm leaving."

"WAIT!" she stopped suddenly and stared at him, "WHERE'S MEGUMI-SAN AND ROSARIO-SAN!"

"I sent them outside where they wouldn't be hurt," said Reborn as he watched Ahiru continue her way out of the living room.

"WHERE'S THE HOLOGRAM REMOTE!"

"It's probably broken," said Anna, she looked down at Hide and added, "Or else we wouldn't be able to see your underwear."

"EH!" this was not yelled when Hide was in Dying Will Mode, his flame had disappeared and his face was now bright red.

"You know Hide," Suzuki began, "For some reason, you become super cool whenever you're only wearing your underwear."

"Eh!" the boy's mouth fell open.

"Yeah," everyone else in the room agreed.

"EH!"

**~8~**

And so the game show ended without any winner or any loser, therefore nobody received the punishment and nobody received the reward.

"So what exactly was the reward, Reborn?" Hide asked that night when he was pretty sure that Adam and Anna had fallen asleep, "From the way you were talking about it, you made it sound like a really cool treasure that could do anything."

"There was no prize, I made it up," the infant said before falling asleep.

"Why does this not surprise me," the boy sweat-dropped.

_I don't think it's time for you to understand,_ Reborn smirked in his sleep before continuing his slumber.

**~8~**

**Oh Reborn, you and your crazy antics :) Once again, I apologize for not updating in a while. The poll for which character the next Skywards extra should be centered on in on my profile, for those that have voted before you can vote again ;) just a simple reminder to ya.**

**I don't own KHR Amano Akira owns it, and let us hope that s/he shall continue with it!**


	35. Ch 35: Hide the Pumpkin King!

**Here's a special Halloween/Pumpkin themed chapter! I hope you all enjoy! :D**

**~8~**

"Gah!" Hide yelped as he was kicked out of bed by Reborn.

"Get up, Lazy-Hide," his tutor ordered, "You're going to be doing a special assignment today."

"Assignment?" the boy questioned while rubbing the spot on the back of his head where Reborn had kicked him, "What are you talking about?"

A very sharp looking knife appeared in Reborn's hands and he said, with an oddly murderous intent, "What do you think I'm talking about?"

**~8~**

"Oh my, this is such a nice thing for you to do, Hide-kun!" his mother said while watching her son carve one out of possibly a hundred pumpkins that were littered around the kitchen and living room, "I'll be right back, Hide-kun! I'm going to the store to buy some groceries!"

"Okay mom," Hide muttered miserably as he continued his work, after hearing the door shut he looked up to Reborn, who was in a pumpkin outfit, and asked, "Is this seriously my 'special assignment'? Carving up pumpkins?"

"Each of the pumpkins you're carving are special Mafia Pumpkins," Reborn explained, he held up one of the pumpkins out of the large pile and said, "For example, this one is called a 'Sea Pumpkin' because it was grown in the ocean and is watery on the inside. And this one," he picked another, darker-colored pumpkin and held it up to Hide's face, "is a 'Grenade Pumpkin' because if you take the top off, and throw it without caution it explodes and will kill anyone that is close to it at the time."

He then dropped the pumpkin but Hide, luckily, caught it before it landed on the ground.

"You'll be carving each and every one of these pumpkins for everyone that you know, think of it as an appreciation gift for all of the things that everyone has done for you."

"Wait, for _every_one I know?" he asked skeptically, "That'll take forever!"

"Then you shouldn't waste time whining about it," Reborn said haughtily and turned back to all of the Mafia Pumpkins that were around the two, "All of these pumpkins are different, you must carve them all in a unique way, and then deliver them to everybody. If you don't finish your assignment by the end of the day, then there will be grave consequences."

"What?" Hide groaned, and he picked up a nearby pumpkin out of the massive pile that looked normal enough, except for some reason he was getting weird vibes from the orange vegetable, "Why does this pumpkin look so suspicious…?"

"It's a Poison Pumpkin," Reborn answered, his student fumbled for pumpkin after it almost fell out of his hands, "The inside is made up of a special acidic property that is able to burn through steel, and the outside is hard enough to break a person's jaw if someone were to take a bite out of it."

"How the heck do you even carve it then?" he gawked and added, "And who in the world would I even give this to!"

"That's for you to figure out," the tutor shrugged, a gun appeared in his hand and he pointed it at Hide's forehead, "But I strongly suggest you get to carving. Now."

**~8~**

"Gramps!" Hide hollered upon entering Takesushi, "Gramps, where are you?"

"Hey Hide!" Suzuki waved energetically to him, "How's it going?"

"No time to talk, Suzuki!" he said hurriedly while searching the restaurant, "Have you seen Gramps?"

"I'll go call him out," he said and went to the kitchen, a few seconds later he came back with Yamamoto behind him.

"What's the rush, buddy?" the old man grinned to his grandson while wiping his hands on a rag.

"Gramps, can I borrow the hovercycle?" Hide asked quickly and hurriedly, "I have like a hundred pumpkins to give to people! Oh yeah, which reminds me!" he ran out of the restaurant before coming back in with two pumpkins under his arms, "These are for you guys!"

"Pumpkins?" Suzuki questioned and took one of them, "Well, it is almost Halloween…why does it feel squishy though?"

"Reborn called it a Sea Pumpkin," Hide explained, "Because the inside was really watery and it was grown in the ocean, so I think that's why its watery."

"That's kind of weird for a pumpkin," he laughed and added, "I like the baseball pattern on mine!

"Mafia Pumpkins!" Yamamoto brightened when he saw his own, there was a fish carved into it, "Man, I never thought I would miss one of these when I retired!"

"Gramps, yours is a Fish Pumpkin," his grandson quickly said, "Reborn told me that its called that because its an actual fish shaped like a pumpkin…which would probably explain the fish guts that were inside it…"

"Then aren't you glad I taught you how to properly gut a fish, buddy?" Yamamoto grinned.

"No, not really," he grimaced as he remembered the surprise he got when emptying out the Fish Pumpkin, "So can I borrow the hovercycle or not?"

"Sure thing," he grinned and tossed the hovercycle's keys to Hide, "Just bring it back around midnight, okay?"

"Not gonna be a problem, gramps!" he said and quickly left.

**~8~**

"Okay, I've gotten my neighbors, Gramps, Suzuki, Mom…" Hide muttered as he went through a list he had written out, "I think that Gokudera-san's apartment is closest right now…"

He soon came upon the apartment of Hanabi and Nagi and knocked on their door. They were both surprised to see him and, much to Hide's shock, they quietly listened to his story.

"Mafia Pumpkins?" Nagi questioned with interest as he examined his pumpkin, which had a skull on it, "I haven't seen one of these in a while. This is a Skull Pumpkin, right? A pumpkin rumored to have been grown on the bones of the Vongola's enemies."

"That's right," Hide nodded while looking a little unnerved, "But Reborn didn't tell me the gruesome story behind it.

"Thank you for the pumpkins Twelfth!" Hanabi piped in excitedly, "This Grenade Pumpkin is far too undeserving for me!"

"Your welcome, Gokudera-san," he said weakly and looked at his watch, "Oh geez, I have to go, I'll see you guys later!" the boy waved to them as he ran off to the hovercycle.

"That was surprisingly much easier than I originally thought," he muttered to himself as he rode through out Namimori on the hovercycle, he looked back at his list and said thoughtfully, "Morita-kun might be at the school, and I can probably go around to the teachers lounge and give my teachers these…"

**~8~**

He was beginning to steer his hovercycle in the direction of the school and immediately stopped on the bridge when he saw two familiar twins and one of them was holding a familiar, little, white-haired boy upside down on the bridge.

"Anna! What are you doing with Nico!" Hide yelped and grabbed the boy out away from her.

"He was pissing me off," she said, as if this was a suitable excuse, "Relax Boss, he's unconscious."

"What kind of reason is that!" he looked over to Adam, who was reading a magazine while leaning on the railing of the bridge and asked, "Are you just gonna sit there and watch your sister torture a kid!"

Adam looked up from his magazine and said, "Well, I'd like to clarify that I'm not sitting, I'm leaning," he turned a page of his magazine and continued, "As for my sister dangling a small child off of a bridge, I could probably care less."

"Then care more!" Hide yelled and looked back at the unconscious Nico, he tried waking him up, "Hey, Nico, I have a present to give you."

The boy's green eyes snapped open and he said excitedly, "Present?"

"Why did I think that would work…?" Hide muttered to himself.

"Where's the present?" the boy asked excitedly, "What's the present?"

"Hold on, it's on my hovercycle," he said and quickly went over to the hovercycle and got out three pumpkins, as he came back he noticed that Nico was hiding behind Adam and Anna also had a piece of rope in her hands.

"H-Here," he said, slightly unnerved at the sight, "I got you guys Mafia Pumpkins."

"Mafia Pumpkins?" Nico exclaimed as Hide handed the boy a pumpkin that was slightly paler than the ones he gave Adam and Anna.

"Mine's an Ice Pumpkin," said the twin sister, her pumpkin was designed with a thunderbolt and she asked, "Why does it have a thunderbolt on it?"

"Um, because you use tazers a lot?" Hide said uncertainly, he was not very sure why he had put a thunderbolt on it either.

"Haha, mine's a Funny Pumpkin!" Adam laughed, the design on his pumpkin was an eerie smiling face, "This is awesome, Boss. Thanks!"

"What kind is mine, Boss?" Nico asked eagerly.

"I think yours was a White Pumpkin," he said thoughtfully before adding, "Do you like the star I carved into it?"

"Yup!" he nodded cheerfully.

Hide took out his list and scratched off their names before going back to his hovercycle and saying, "I have to go now, I'll see you guys later!"

"See you Boss!" they all waved.

**~8~**

"What's this?" Morita asked upon seeing his pumpkin, which had a boxing glove carved into it, "These are some pretty crazy pumpkins, Hide."

Hide had carved a pumpkin for everybody he knew that was in the Boxing Team and even for Megumi, but they were all more or less surprised at the weird shapes and sizes of the pumpkins.

"I think it's cute!" Megumi smiled, hers was a tiny little pumpkin that was unimaginatively named Small Pumpkin, "I especially like the cute little face you carved into it, Hide-kun!"

"Wow, so Sawada is talented in music _and_ sculpting…" commented one of the boxers in awe.

"No, I'm not at all," Hide quickly rejected the rumor.

"My pumpkin's pretty huge," Morita commented, the pumpkin he was holding was probably the same size as his own torso and was also unimaginatively named Big Pumpkin, "But I like the boxing glove you carved into it."

"Oh yeah, do you guys know if there are any teachers around today?" he asked quickly, not wanting to waste any time that could be spent avoiding Reborn's most likely horrible punishment.

"I think I saw Principal Hibari here," Megumi said helpfully, "And Kurokawa-sensei too."

"I-I don't think I want to run into Principal Hibari just yet…" the boy paled, he was actually planning on finding Ahiru and telling her to give the pumpkin to the principal.

"Good luck finding them," Morita called after him as Hide ran off to the school, he looked back at his pumpkin and said, "I'm kind of wondering where the heck he even got these things."

**~8~**

"Hello?" Hide asked as he entered the teacher's lounge, the lights were on inside but he could not see anyone in the room, "Um, I'm Sawada Hideyoshi, I'm looking for my teachers," he said cautiously as he slowly walked in, "Or at least their desks or something…"

He quietly walked in and looked around, "Hello?" he asked again and almost screamed when he found himself forcefully pulled down to the ground and a hand covering his mouth.

"Shhh!" his captor hushed him quickly.

Hide pulled the hand off his mouth and said in a hushed tone, "Kurokawa-sensei!"

"Oh, Sawada!" the assistant teacher exclaimed quietly and quickly let go of the student but still made him crouch down on the ground, "You gotta be quiet Sawada, I'm playing a super intense game of Hide-and-Seek with Ahiru-chan…"

The young boss was quiet for a few seconds before questioning, "Wait…you're doing what…?"

"Ah-hah!" they were both caught by surprise as the little girl swooped down upon them and grabbed their shirts, "Tag! I got the both of you herbivores!"

"Damn it! She got me!" Kurokawa pounded his fist on the ground in anguish.

"So you were seriously playing tag with Hibari-chan…huh," Hide muttered while trying not to sound unimpressed.

"Your fault was allowing Ahibird into the game!" Ahiru said triumphantly, "Ahibird was able to spot you herbivores in a second!"

"I see," the older man nodded as if he was learning from an important instructor and not a small girl.

"Hide-nii," she began cheerfully, "Do you want to join in the next game?"

"Maybe next time, Hibari-chan," Hide said cautiously and remembered why he was here, "Oh yeah, I have presents for the teachers, the principal, and Hibari-chan!"

"Presents?" Kurokawa questioned, "What kind?"

"I'll be right back!" he quickly said before running off and grabbing the pumpkins, "They're right here!"

"Pumpkins?" the assistant teacher asked as he helped his student with carrying the large amount in his hands.

"Yeah, my tutor thought it would be a good idea to give everyone I know a pumpkin as an appreciation gift," Hide nodded and took one out of the pile and handed it to Ahiru, "Here you go, Hibari-chan. A Yellow Pumpkin with a bird carved on it."

"Cute!" the girl blushed and danced around with the pumpkin, "It looks just like Ahibird! Thank you Hide-nii!"

"A-And this one is for Principal Hibari…" Hide said as he handed another pumpkin to her with slightly more care, "It's called a Spike Pumpkin…Reborn said that this one would suit him well…"

"Grandpa will be super happy with it, Hide-nii!" Ahiru said cheerfully.

"I hope so…" he grimaced before going back to the pile of pumpkins and started searching through them, "Um, there's one for you too, Kurokawa-sensei…uh…Here!"

He handed Kurokawa a slightly green pumpkin and said, "It's called a, um, Ripe Pumpkin, because it stays ripe for almost a whole year."

"Could you not think of anything other than a pen to carve on it?" the teacher said jokingly.

"It's actually a pencil…" Hide mumbled to himself and said out loud, "Do you know where the other teachers' desks are?"

"Sure," he nodded and said, "I'll help you."

"Ahiru wants to help too!" the girl said eagerly.

Hide was more than grateful for the help that was offered to him and after putting the pumpkins on the desks, he quickly left for the next location.

"Um, I got Morita, Megumi, the guys in the Boxing Team, Kurokawa-sensei, Hibari-chan, Principal Hibari, and all of the teachers…" he said thoughtfully as he started the hovercycle, "Who else…uh…that's right! Rosario-san! But…where do I find Rosario-san?"

"Did someone call me?" Hide nearly fell off of the hovercycle as he was riding past the park and saw Rosario sitting on the railing of the park entrance reading a newspaper, "My, my," she sighed and shook her head as she approached the boy, the newspaper in her hand turned into a clipboard and she started scribbling stuff down, "A Boss who gets surprised easily will die an early death."

Hide ignored this comment and quickly dug into the sack of pumpkins that was strapped on the hovercycle, "Thank goodness you're here, Rosario-san! Here!" he thrust out a pumpkin to the woman.

She took one whiff and immediately brightened, "Poison Pumpkin! Just like my mother used to grow!"

The boy's sweat dropped and he said, "Reborn said you would like that, but I didn't exactly know why until now…"

"And it has a little flower carved into it!" Rosario continued, "Thank you, young Twelfth! Mafia Pumpkins are a very special gift to give to allies of other Families, it's said that they are extremely hard to find also!"

"Really?" Hide asked skeptically, "Because Reborn filled my living room and kitchen with these things and told me to carve them."

"You should be very grateful to Papa then, young Twelfth!" the woman instructed while holding her Poison Pumpkin under one arm, "There must have been quite a lot of strings attached to all of the pumpkins that filled your house."

"R-Really…?" he paled and wondered where the costs of all of the pumpkins went, he then remembered the other pumpkins in his bag and asked, "Rosario-san, you know the Tenth and Eleventh, right?"

"I talk to them," she shrugged.

"Then would you happen to know my dad too?" he asked.

"Uh, I do," she nodded unsteadily, "How do you know?"

"Well I know for sure that my dad knows about the Mafia," Hide sighed tiredly, "Since my uncle is the Eleventh and all, I think it would actually be almost impossible for him _not_ to know about the Mafia. So could you give these pumpkins to the Tenth, Eleventh, and my dad?"

Rosario stared at the sack before nodding, "I would be honored to, young Twelfth."

"Oh yeah, and there's one for Gokudera-san's grandfather also," Hide quickly added, "He helped Gokudera-san a lot, and I'm pretty sure he's a nice guy."

"I'm sure Gokudera-oji will be absolutely honored to have received such a present from the young Twelfth," she said while bowing, and asked with interest, "But why are you giving a pumpkin to the Tenth? I thought you said you hated him."

"I do," he answered flatly and then added reluctantly, "But Reborn told me that I'm apparently grateful to the old bastard…

She shrugged this insult off and asked, "Are you sure you want me to take all of these? Is there someone else you're forgetting that hasn't gotten one?"

"Hm…" Hide muttered thoughtfully and shook his head, "No, there's you, Gokudera-san, Nagi-san, Morita-kun, Megumi-san, Suzuki, gramps, mom, Kurokawa-sensei, my neighbors, everyone on the Boxing Team, Principal Hibari, my teachers, Hibari-chan, Nico, Adam and Anna…yeah, I think that's everyone."

"Are you sure?" she asked again.

"For the last time, I'm pretty sure I got everyone," he shrugged and took out his list, "Look, other than you and dad, the Tenth, the Eleventh, and Gokudera-san's grandfather, I have everybody on my list scratched out!"

"Hmm," she eyed the list carefully before shrugging and saying, "Okay then, I'll go on the first plane to Italy and give these to the people you have asked me to give to as soon as possible."

"Thanks Rosario-san."

**~8~**

Upon coming back home, after he returned the hovercycle of course, Hide was greeted by Reborn with a kick to the face.

"Idiot, I told you not to come home until you gave a pumpkin to everyone," his tutor scolded.

"What?" Hide rubbed his nose in pain, "But I did give everyone a pumpkin! Wait, was it against the rules if I told Rosario-san to give the pumpkins to the Tenth, Eleventh, and my dad if they were in Italy?"

"No," he shook his head, "I overlooked that, but you still have to deliver one more pumpkin to someone else."

"What!" the boy's mouth fell open.

"Now I'll have to punish you," Reborn said, the Leon in his hand turned into a gun and he pointed it at Hide.

But instead of flinching away and running away, like he usually did, Hide smirked and said, "I know I missed someone."

"Oh really?" the infant asked skeptically.

"Yup," he nodded and took out a pumpkin that he had been hiding behind his back and presented it to Reborn, "But I didn't want to give you a Mafia Pumpkin, those things are weird. So I had to go to the store and get you a regular pumpkin."

His tutor stared at it for a few seconds before allowing Leon to turn back into his shape-shifting chameleon form and smiling back at his student, "Very good, I believe this is the first time you actually passed something."

Hide smiled and looked up when he saw his mom come out of the kitchen with the pumpkin he had given her earlier. Adam, Anna, and Nico followed her to the front door and quietly laid each of their own pumpkins outside on the front porch.

"What are you guys doing?" the son asked curiously.

"It was Adam-kun and Anna-chan's idea!" his mother said cheerfully, this did not answer her son's question at all so he still looked on with interest.

Anna took out a match and a few candles appeared in her brothers' hands, they each took the lid off of each of them and inserted a candle into each. Anna took her lit match and quietly lit the candles in each of them until all of the pumpkins had glowing faces.

"Oh my, how cute!" Mrs. Sawada said cheerfully.

"The Ice Pumpkin will probably melt by tomorrow morning, but oh well," Anna shrugged dismissively and walked back inside the house.

"Hmph, my pumpkin is definitely the best," Nico said proudly.

"So they're Jack-O-Lanterns?" Hide asked as he examined the pumpkins, "I didn't think of using them like that…"

"Hey Adam," the foreigner looked down and saw Reborn holding up the pumpkin Hide had given him, "Light this one up."

"Okay," he shrugged and put the candle in to light it.

"It's getting cold," Hide's mother shivered and rubbed her arms, "Let's all go inside, I'll make us all hot chocolate."

"Okay," the children said in sing-song voices before going back inside.

The door shut on the glowing pumpkins that sat on the front porch. And as the night sky fell on them, one pumpkin seemed to stand superior to all of the Mafia Pumpkins. This was the only pumpkin that had an orange glowing gun on it.

**~8~**

…**Reborn's influence even reaches to his own pumpkin…**

**Well that's my Halloween chapter! And it will probably the last chapter I'm going to post up for the rest of the month.**

**In other news, I drew up a crappy character sheet of Hide. Here's a link if you guys want to see my horrible coloring skills and drawing skills:** h t t p : / / e 1 c h a n . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / a r t / H i d e - R e f e r e n c e - S h e e t - 1 4 0 6 0 1 3 2 6

**And if you want to talk to me about it and this chapter, go ahead and visit my forum! Called Just another Forum, where you can also talk with the amazing Nehszriah, author of other NextGen stuff like Vongola Unidecisimo and Zio Hayato!**


	36. Ch 36: A New Character Or An Old One?

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I was going to update at the beginning of this month but Choir things, science things, junior medical conference things, etc, etc took over my life for a while, and now I'm on thanksgiving break (thank god!) so I'll probably actually have two chapters written by the end of this week! :D**

**Ignore my whining and enjoy this chapter!**

**~8~**

Hide yawned in class and continued to listen to the horribly boring lecture that the teacher giving. The door slid open, but nobody reacted to it other than Hide, who idly looked at the open door and saw a girl with straight, purple hair. The girl looked very strange to Hide, he kept on wondering if her hair was dyed or something, she looked about a year or two younger than him and she was dressed almost entirely in black.

She looked around the classroom, there still was nobody reacting to her presence even as she walked in. She continued searching the class for something until she stopped with her gaze on Hide.

"Vongola Twelfth, I presume?" she said.

The boy nearly fell out of his chair upon hearing this, he quickly looked around and realized that everybody had kept on staring at the teacher, who was still teaching his dreadfully boring lesson, as if nothing had even happened. As if this girl was some sort of ghost.

"What are you doing?" he whispered to her in a suspicious tone, "Are you some sort of ghost? Is this a dream?"

The girl stared at him blankly and leaned over to pinch his arm, "Does it feel like a dream, idiot."

"Ow!" Hide yelped and quickly covered his mouth, nobody around him made any motion to move not even Hanabi, "Why isn't anyone doing anything?" he wondered aloud.

"Yeah, that would be the illusions."

_Illusions?_ the boy thought and then remembered his encounter with the God Boxes at Namimori Shrine, "Illusions!" he exclaimed.

"Geez you're loud," she muttered while covering her ears, the purple-haired girl leaned down to him again and examined Hide, "I can't believe you're related to those guys, you look almost nothing like them…"

"W-What? What guys?" he gulped and leaned back in his chair.

"Well duh," she rolled her eyes and had her arms crossed over her chest as she continued, "The other Vongola Twelfths."

**~8~**

"Reborn!" Hide immediately called to his tutor as he searched the school halls, "Reborn, where are you?"

"Ciaossu," he looked down and saw the box used to hold the fire extinguisher swing open, Reborn was inside the box and was sipped a tiny cup of espresso in a very comfortable atmosphere.

"I don't think I want to know…" his student muttered before shaking his head and asking, "Reborn! Did you hire an illusionist to follow me?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," the infant said elusively and sipped on his espresso.

"I'm not joking here, Reborn!" Hide shook his head furiously, "A weird little girl with purple hair just walked into my class room and told me she was an illusionist!"

"Purple hair? That's probably Chloe then," Reborn said thoughtfully.

"Great! Is she another one of your weird assassin friends?" the blonde asked reluctantly.

"No, not really," he shook his head and said, "Chloe is part of the Varia, an elite assassination squad by the Vongola that is said to have assassins that are almost inhuman in terms of strength."

"I-Inhuman?" Hide gulped.

"They are also known for their mercilessness as well," Reborn added cheerfully.

"The Varia?" he said weakly and quickly regained his composure, "Hold on, did you or did you not call an assassin illusionist to follow me around?"

"I didn't," his tutor stated.

"But you said she was part of the Vongola," Hide verified, "Look, I just want to know one thing, Reborn. Is she going to kill me or not?"

"I see no reason why she would want to kill you or have any need to kill you," Reborn replied, "But then again, she may just hate you."

"What!"

"Let's get things straight first," the infant began, "Did she say she was going to kill you?"

"No, you're the one that brought up that topic!" he pointed out.

"What exactly did she say to you?"

"I don't know," he shrugged and added sheepishly, "She said something about the former Twelfths and then disappeared in thin air."

Reborn seemed to think about what Hide said for a few seconds, before he dismissively shrugged and said, "That's Chloe for you."

"What the hell is 'That's Chloe for you' supposed to mean?" the boy paled.

"Twelfth!" Hide looked up and saw Hanabi and Suzuki coming after him.

"Hey Hide?" the raven-haired boy greeted him, "Why the big hurry after the school bell rang?"

"I had to find Reborn," he said tiredly.

"Then what are you doing sitting in front of the fire extinguisher's case?"

"Idiot!" Hanabi began to scold Suzuki, "The Twelfth can sit anywhere he damn well pleases!"

Hide looked back to the fire extinguisher's case and saw that the door had closed.

"Hide, are we still going over to your house to study?" Suzuki asked while holding up a text book, "Because I seriously need help with history."

"Huh?" the blonde glanced up to him and looked back to the fire extinguisher's case, "Yeah, sure."

"If you're going to the Twelfth's house, then I am too!" Hanabi declared.

"Weren't you going to come anyways?" the baseball player pointed out.

"Nobody was talking you, baseball-idiot!"

"But you just were."

Hide was stuck the Hanabi's one-sided argument with Suzuki the rest of the walk home. But he wasn't annoyed, in fact his thoughts were on something other than the two.

"Hide!" Suzuki snapped him out of his thoughts and he realized that he was standing in front of his house, "Are you alright, Hide?" he asked with concern.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, just thinking about stuff," he shrugged and opened the door to his house.

"Like what?"

"Um," Hide thought the idea of telling the two about what he saw today in class and decided against it, "Nothing important."

If it had only been Suzuki there, Hide might have told him, but since Hanabi was there also he decided against it. After all, she probably would have gone crazy over the fact that she didn't see Chloe and also would have threatened to possibly kill/blow up anything around him for the next 24 hours.

"Mom, I'm home!" he called as he entered the house, "Suzuki and Gokudera-san are here too!"

"Oh my, Hide-kun!" his mother called from inside the kitchen, "There's a friend here for you!"

"Friend?" he questioned and walked towards the kitchen, he nearly fell over when he saw Chloe sitting at his kitchen table with a cup of tea in her hands, "W-What the heck!"

"I have to go to the grocery store, Hide-kun," his mom said as she got up from the table and began to leave, "Take care of the house for me!"

"Mom! Wait-!" he began hurriedly but she had already left, so he turned back to the purple-haired assassin that was currently sitting at his dining table.

"Hello, Twelfth," she said conversationally.

"You!" Hide spun around and saw Hanabi pointing an accusing finger at Chloe, "What the hell are you doing here!"

"Oh, well if it isn't the Smoking Bomb's kidnapped sister?" the girl observed before adding, "Or should I say, the _new_ Smoking Bomb?"

"Shut up and just answer the question!" the bomber said testily.

"Huh? Gokudera-san, do you know her?" asked Hide as he looked from the two frantically.

"Do I know her?" Hanabi scoffed, "Of course! She's the first Twelfth's Mist Guardian!"

"His what?"

"Former," Chloe clarified, "Former Mist Guardian. He is dead now after all. How's that dumb brother of yours doing, by the way?"

"He's doing perfectly fine without your screwy illusions messing up his head," she growled.

The illusionist shrugged and muttered, "Geez, I was just asking."

"Why you-!" Hanabi began angrily and started to take out her cards but was luckily stopped by Hide.

"W-Wait a second!" he yelped, the whole room fell silent and he looked over to Chloe, "So you're an assassin who knew the former Twelfth," he then turned to Hanabi and said, "And your brother worked with her, right?"

"Y-Yes, Twelfth," the bomber muttered obediently.

"That sounds right," Chloe nodded.

Hide sighed with relief and asked, "Then why do you two seem to hate each other so much?"

"I wouldn't call our relationship hate, young Twelfth," the purple-haired girl began, "It's more like a mutual dislike for each other."

"Really? Because I would call that hate," Hanabi pointed out, she then turned to Hide and said apologetically, "Twelfth, please excuse my rudeness, but the reason why _I_ don't like this…" she paused to looked at Chloe distastefully before turning her attention back to Hide, "illusionist is because she's in the Varia, I hate anyone in the Varia."

"Why?"

"Because they're a bunch of creepy nut-jobs," she said flatly.

"I would also like to say something," Chloe spoke up, "First off, I'm not in the Varia anymore. I quit a while ago."

"You don't quit a job like killing people so easily," Hanabi said suspiciously, "It's not the same as any other job."

"It is for an illusionist," she said in a tone that suggested this was fact.

"Isn't that against the rules?" asked Reborn, who had just suddenly appeared at Hide's feet.

"Reborn!" the boy yelped and almost had a heart-attack at his tutor's sudden appearance.

"If it isn't Signore Reborn," Chloe smiled to herself after seeing the infant, "To answer your question: yes, I believe it is against some rules, but I've never been a stickler for rules like the Smoking Bomb-siblings."

"Does Nagi know you're here?" Hanabi asked.

"Nope, and I plan on making it stay that way," she stated flatly.

"Uh," Suzuki began cautiously, "Can anyone tell me what's going on?"

Chloe looked up at him and asked, "Are you a swordsman, by any chance?"

The baseball player stared at her blankly for a few seconds before grinning sheepishly and saying, "No, not really, but if it helps I used a sword once."

"I see," she stated and looked over to Reborn, "I have to say, Signore Reborn, this is quite a disappointment you've gathered here."

"I know," he said calmly.

"These Family members for the Twelfth are weak, no matter how I look at them," she continued, "Their strength looks to be at least average to that of any normal Mafioso."

"What did you say, you little twerp!" Hanabi growled while eyeing the girl threateningly.

"I know," Reborn replied.

"These children you've gathered all would be dead by now if they were up against the original Twelfth's Family," Hide became startled when she said this, his eyes widened and he continued to stare uncomfortably at her, "I would have thought you'd have gathered people who were much stronger."

"I've done the best I could do under the given circumstances," the infant shrugged, "Hide's luck is exceedingly bad compared to other people's."

"Well, I guess that explains a lot," she sighed, "He looks pretty weak also."

"Yeah, he's the weakest."

"You guys do realize that I'm still here, right?" Hide waved a hand in between the two's vision of each other.

Reborn grabbed his hand and twisted it until it almost broke, "Don't interrupt me."

"Ow, ow, ow! Okay!" he yelped.

"Wow, you really are weak," Chloe commented.

"Don't insult the Twelfth, you little twerp!" Hanabi threatened and began to pull out her cards again.

"Are we going to play cards now?" Suzuki asked cheerfully upon seeing the deck.

"No!" she yelled.

"Gokudera-san, what did I say about throwing explosives in my house!" Hide yelped when he, too, saw the deck.

Hanabi sighed reluctantly and muttered, "That I shouldn't do it."

"Thank you!" he sighed with relief as he watched her put the deck away.

"Chloe-san, right?" Hide spun around as he noticed Suzuki talking right towards her, "Are you on our team?"

"Team?" she questioned.

"Suzuki!" the blonde hissed and tried to pull him away from the assassin.

"Relax, Hide," he grinned confidently, "I'm just asking a fellow player what team they're on."

"Oh, you mean if I'm on your side or not," Chloe concluded, "Well, I wouldn't exactly say that I'm on your side or not, but I won't hurt you."

"So you're like a neutral party?"

"Yeah, sure," she nodded, "Neutral. At least for you."

"Then you're not going to kill me?" Hide asked carefully.

"What?" she raised an eyebrow, "Who said anything about killing anybody?"

He gulped and began nervously, "W-Well, Reborn told me you were an assassin, so I only thought…"

"You're not only weak, but an idiot too," she said flatly, "That strangely reminds me of useless weakling I once knew."

"Don't look down on the Twelfth, brat," Hanabi warned, "Even if he is slow at times!"

"That's not helping, Gokudera-san," the 'Twelfth' sighed tiredly.

"Heh," Chloe smirked, Hide noted that this was probably the closest he was going to get to her actually laughing, "What is this? A comedy? Signore Reborn, the family you've gathered may be weak, but they sure are comical."

"That they are," Reborn nodded with a smirk and watched her suddenly stand up.

"Oh yeah, I came here for a reason," she reminded herself, "I have something to give back to the Vongola, Signore Reborn" she turned to Hanabi and said, "Look, Smoking Bomb, my proof of resignation."

Chloe held out a hand and a small indigo-colored cube appeared in the palm of her hand along with a ring that had an eyeball in place of where the stone should have been, "I have no use for these trinkets any more. Here."

She handed the two items over to Reborn, who took them and made them quickly disappear.

"Hmph," Hanabi stuck her nose up at this, "Doesn't change the fact that you were part of the Varia."

"No, it doesn't," the younger girl shrugged.

"What was that?" Suzuki asked curiously.

Chloe looked at him as if she was staring at a moron and asked, "You don't know what that was?"

"Nope!" he shook his head while giving off his cheerful smile, "What is it?"

"Um…" she hesitated before explaining and continued in a struggling manner, "How would you say it in this language…um, cube…tool?-Cube Tool? Or perhaps Square Arms…?

Hide held back the urge to laugh at her failed attempt to translate what he was sure she meant, 'Box Weapon'. Suzuki did the same, though for a different reason.

"Haha! That's such a weird name for something!" he laughed.

Chloe's face became bright red but she quickly hid this fact from everyone in the room and turned around.

"How stupid, I should have come when it would only be me and Signore Reborn!" she stated, "I'll take my leave then!"

"W-Wait, Chloe!" Hide began, but the girl had already disappeared, he went limp as soon as she disintegrated into the air and muttered, "There were so many things I wanted to ask her…"

"I hate her," Hanabi stated after Chloe left.

"Really? I thought she was pretty cool," Suzuki said cheerfully.

"That explains a lot, because I hate you too."

"Haha! That's hilarious, Gokudera!" the baseball player laughed cheerfully.

**~8~**

Later on that night, Chloe was sitting outside on top of Hide's roof. Her elbows were resting on her knees and her hands supported her head as she listened the crickets chirp besides her.

"Yes, Signore Reborn?" she questioned, not even needing to turn back to the infant that was right behind her.

"Why did you quit the Varia?" Reborn asked without any hesitation, he walked over to her and was now standing besides her.

"Still as straightforward as ever I see," she muttered, her dark eyes wandered up to the star-lit sky, after a few seconds of star-gazing she mumbled, "For certain reasons."

"What about your apprenticeship under Viper?" he continued the interrogation despite the vague answers that were being given, "He's not the kind of guy that would take on students for free much less at all, if you stayed in Italy you would have grown ten-times stronger than you are now."

"Don't you think I know that?" Chloe raised an eyebrow at him and laid herself down on the roof tile, "I felt like a sudden change was in the air, so I got out of that old country as soon as I could. My education under Master Mammon was very nice, but I don't feel like I can learn all that much from him anymore."

"Then were you offered a position in Japan from the Tenth or Eleventh?" he questioned

"The Eleventh?" the illusionist scoffed at this and said sarcastically, "The Eleventh has become a complete and total loon since I last saw him, he's about as much help to the Vongola now as rock. Nobody has even seen the Eleventh since his last son died."

"That really didn't answer my question, Chloe," the infant said coldly.

Chloe smirked and said, "That demeanor of yours can change real quickly, can't it? Well, if you must know, I just came to give you that Hell Ring and my Twelfth generation Varia Box."

"Then why did you come straight to Hide when you came to Japan?"

"Mere curiosity," she shrugged and continued, "Don't expect me to stay for very long though. That boy is annoying, tiresome, and very depressing to look at, there is no way in hell that you can expect me to stay in this dingy little place for long."

"So you're going to leave then? And where are you going to go?"

Chloe looked back up at the sky and hummed thoughtfully before replying, "No clue, but I want to go traveling for a bit. Maybe I'll come back again because of curiosity."

For some reason, Reborn seemed satisfied this answer and smirked, "I had a feeling you would."

"And why is that?" she asked, but before he could answer the window to Hide's bedroom slid open and Hide stuck his head out.

"Reborn!" the boy called, "Are you up there? I heard some voices."

"I'm with a friend," the infant replied and looked back to where Chloe was but she had completely disappeared from where she supposedly was making Reborn smirk, "I'm sure you'll be back here soon, Chloe. After all, you did look like you were having fun down there."

"Reborn!" Hide called again.

"Shut up, idiot," his tutor scolded as he jumped down from below and kicked the boy on the back of his head.

"Ow!" he yelped in pain and fell to his bedroom floor while rubbing his head, he turned his attention back to his tutor and asked, "Reborn, was someone else up there with you?"

Reborn stared at him straight in the eye and asked innocently, "Why do you ask that?"

"Because I thought I heard two voices up there," he explained, "And I thought you said you were with a friend too."

"Yes, I was speaking to the raccoons that live on your roof," Reborn stated, "They are quite fond of me."

"Eh! There are raccoons on my roof?" Hide yelped, "I-Isn't that unlucky?"

"No, I only trained them to kill weak Mafia Bosses, so you should be fine," the infant said and then added thoughtfully, "Oh wait…"

"Don't joke around!" he yelped.

"Boss," a voice began to speak from underneath his bed, "I don't mind if you're scared of raccoons and all, but if you're going to worry could you please do so with the lights turned off?"

"Why are you even still under my bed, Adam!" Hide paled.

The closet swung open and Anna jumped out, "Don't worry about it, Boss, I'll do it for you."

"And why are you still living in my closet!"

"To protect you, Boss," she stated before turning the light switch off.

"Go to sleep, idiot," Reborn ordered and kicked the boy until he was unconscious.

**~8~**

Chloe watched from outside with a smile on her face, but upon realizing that she was smiling she immediately frowned and started leaving. "I did not have fun," she muttered.

**~8~**

**I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter, the next one will be an extra which will focus more on the Eleventh and his Guardians. If you wish to talk about this chapter and other things, come on down to my forum: Just another Forum, which has its newest moderator, Nehszriah who is author other Next Gen fics such as _Vongola Unidicesimo_ and _Zio Hayato_!**

**Also, the poll for the next extra is still open on my profile if you wish to vote and haven't yet! :)**

**Anything Katekyo Hitman Reborn!-related belongs to Amano Akira!**


	37. Ch 37: Adam and Anna's Little Adventure

**Er, this chapter was supposed to be about being sick, and was eventually going to end with everyone getting sick in a rather comical way…but I decided to take a different approach to the story, one that focuses more on Anna and Adam's side of the story. Sadly, the ending had to change in order for the chapter to go the way I wanted it to :(**

**With that said, I hope you all like this chapter!**

**~8~**

"Ah-choo!" a sneeze echoed inside the Sawada residence.

"Ah-choo!" both Anna and Adam, from the living room, looked up at the ceiling.

"You think Boss is okay?" Adam asked.

"I don't care, as long as he's living we're good," said Anna.

"Ah-CHOO!" the room shook lightly and the twins looked back up at the ceiling.

"Where's mama*?" the sister asked.

"She went to go get cough medicine for Boss," the brother shrugged and looked back up the ceiling, "We were told not to go up by mama, but we owe a lot to the Boss. Right, sis?"

"I guess," she shrugged.

"He did put us under Vongola Protection, and he gave us a home to stay in," Adam continued in a thoughtful tone, "Mama has also been very gracious to us, she treats us like her own children."

"Yeah."

"Anna! We have to help Boss!" he declared.

"Okay then," she shrugged, "What do you want to do?"

"Help him!" he stated with vindication.

"Alright," Anna agreed and said, "We're going to help Boss."

**~8~**

Meanwhile, on the floor above…

"Ah-choo!" Hide sneezed into a tissue and tossed it into an overflowing waste basket. He pulled his blanket covers over him and mumbled, "Ugh, I feel like my head's going to explode…"

"And whose fault is that?" asked Reborn, who was sitting on Hide's desk in what looked like a lounge chair.

"Yours, I believe," the boy replied and pointed out, "You were the one that shot me with a Dying Will Bullet and made me jump in the river in late November with only my underwear on."

"I didn't 'make' you," his tutor said innocently, "You did it out of your own free will."

"More like Dying Will…" he grumbled and quickly grabbed a tissue to cough into it. His eyes caught a glance at what he just coughed up and he muttered, "Is this supposed to be brown?"

The door then slammed open and Adam ran in, "Boss!"

"Boss," Anna called in a quieter tone as she walked in right behind her brother.

"Huh?" Hide raised an eyebrow as the two entered, "Didn't mom tell you guys to stay downstairs and away from me?"

"Don't worry about it Boss!" Adam quickly said, "Hitmen don't catch colds, right Mr. Reborn?"

"Very good, Adam," the infant nodded approvingly, "You'll turn from assassin to hitman in no time."

_What's the difference!_ Hide gaped.

"Boss, we're going to help you," Anna claimed.

"Help me?" he grimaced and asked cautiously, "What are you going to do…?"

"De-humidify your room," she stated, this did not sound like the greatest idea to Hide as he did not know what 'de-humidify' meant.

"I'm sorry what?" he asked.

"De-humidifying your room will help with your sinuses," she explained in a matter-of-factly tone, "By doing this, your sinuses will clear up and you won't feel all stuffed up and congested anymore."

"R-Really?" he gulped, the idea sounded too good to be true and he wondered how the twins would screw this idea up.

Anna turned to her brother and said, "Bring it in, Adam."

"Okay sis!" he said cheerfully and ran out of the room, when he came back he was carrying a large metallic object** that had steam coming out of it.

"What the hell is that!" Hide gaped at the monstrous machine.

"You simply pour water in it," Anna began as if she was on a commercial; a cup of water materialized in her hands, she opened a small hole in the machine and poured water into it, "And press the button," she did so and the machine immediately began making loud noises, steam poured from out of the machine and into Hide's room; she announced, "You're room is now de-humidified!"

"Why do I get the feeling that this thing was made out of scrap junk metal that you just happened to find," the boy muttered while staring at the machine with silent horror.

"That's because it was," she stated.

"Boss! How are your sinuses?" Adam asked eagerly.

Hide sniffed and said, with mild surprise, "Better, actually. I think this thing is really working.

"Yes!" the foreigner cheered, "Phase one of the plan, complete!"

"What?"

"Anna!" he pointed to his sister, "Begin phase two!"

"There's more than one plan?" Hide gulped.

"Phase, Boss," Anna corrected, "The phase is part of the plan, not the other way around."

"What are you guys going to do?" he asked worriedly.

"You'll see, Boss!" Adam said cheerfully and ran off with his sister before Hide could ask anymore questions.

"Anna, what more are we going to do?" the brother asked immediately after leaving Hide's room, "I didn't know there was a phase two!"

"Weren't you the one that said there was?" his sister asked.

"Really?"

Anna shook her head and said, "Alright, for phase two we're going to call up a specialist in being sick."

"Who?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "I don't know her phone number, where's your cell phone?"

"Right here," he procured a red cell phone for his sister and handed it to her, "Who are you calling?"

"You'll know," she said while looking through his contacts, "She's a real bomb."

**~8~**

"Twelfth!" Hanabi cried out when she exploded into the house, her brother came along after her at a slow and lazy pace.

"Oh, there you are, Smoking Bomb," Anna remarked upon seeing her.

The silver haired bomber grabbed her shirt collar and pulled the blonde towards her until she was only a few inches away from her face, "You told me the Twelfth was dying, you blonde-bitch. That better as hell not be true."

"Yeah, he's just got a cold," she said dismissively and asked, "Did you bring the things I asked for?"

Hanabi's eye brow twitched and she was possibly two seconds away from blowing the entire house up, luckily for the sick Hide, Nagi quickly stepped in with a grocery bag in hand, "Right here," he said cheerfully.

Adam quickly snatched the bag away from him and said, "Thanks!"

"Wait a minute, where do you think you're going with my medicine?" she stopped him and inquired, "In fact, why did you even ask for my medicine?"

"The Twelfth's sick," Anna explained, "And we thought that since you get sick a lot when ever that pink haired lady is around, and since your brother is a druggy-"

"Those are medicinal," Nagi claimed.

"Yeah, whatever," the blonde girl raised and dropped her shoulders with careless attitude and continued, "Point is, you guys use a lot of 'medicine', or whatever you want to call it, and you guys must have something that will help with Boss and his cold. So _do_ you guys have something that helps with colds?"

Hanabi thought about this explanation and eventually gave into the idea, after all it was for her beloved Twelfth!

"Fine," she agreed with slight reluctance, "But only because it's for the Twelfth!"

"Yeah, whatever," Anna repeated and took the grocery bag from her brother to look inside it, "Which stuff is the stuff that helps with colds?"

"Give me that!" Hanabi seized the bag away from her and started looking through it until she finally procured a few bottles of pills, she opened each one and started taking seemingly random numbers from each pill bottle, "The yellow ones are for coughs, but he should only take one every twelve hours or else he'll start having hallucinations," she explained, "The blue ones are for headaches, which he should only take two of them; the small round ones are for sleeping; and these orange ones are for vitamin C."

"Can't we just give him an orange instead?" the other girl inquired.

"I guess you could," Nagi shrugged.

"Shut up Nagi," the younger Gokudera told, she looked over to Anna and spoke, "Look here, blondie, I want to make one thing clear: I'm only doing this for the Twelfth, not for you."

"Yeah, nobody cares," she replied and took the medicine, "Come on, Adam."

"Okay, sis!" her brother said cheerfully and followed her up to Hide's room.

"Hey, sister."

"Yes, brother?"

"Do you think it was a good idea to add that much water to that steam machine?"

"It's called a de-humidifier," Anna stated and said thoughtfully, "I only added about a cup or so of water."

"Then why does it look like a sauna in here?"

Upon opening the door to Hide's room, a hot gust of air and large clouds of steam gushed greeted them. The twins stared at this display for a few minutes until Adam asked:

"Sis, what is the effect of hot steam to a person?"

"Hm," she began thoughtfully, "This probably isn't good…"

"That didn't answer my question, sis," her brother paled.

"Brother," she began in a matter-of-fact tone, "I do quite believe now is a good time to get the hell out of here."

"Okay, that _really_ didn't answer my questions.

"Ugh…" someone moaned, they watched in silence as Hide came stumbling out of his steam-filled room, all of his clothes were drenched with a mixture of water and sweat and most of his body was pruned and wrinkled. The boy fell to the ground as soon as he exited the room and became unconscious.

Adam bent down to Hide and asked his sister, "Do you think we're going to get yelled at again?"

"Most likely."

**~8~**

"You turned my room into a sauna, you left a giant burn mark on my bedroom floor in the shape of that machine-"

"It was a de-humidifier."

"Whatever!" Hide shook his head and continued grimly, "You guys have pretty much ruined my room and possibly the house! Do you know what mom is going to say when she gets home and sees what's wrong with my room?"

The twins stood in silence and kept their eyes focused on the ground of the living room where Hide was sitting on the couch wrapped up in blankets. Their Boss was most definitely not in the best of moods at the moment, even the Gokudera-siblings were completely staying out of this one.

Luckily for the twins, the sound of the front door opening seemed to echo in the house and a cheerful voice rang out, "Hide-kun! I'm home!"

"Look, mom's home," the son said sourly and stared at the twins, "You guys better owe up to this and explain what happened yourselves, alright?"

"Yes, Boss," they both said quietly.

"Oh my, Hide-kun," his mother said when she came to the living room, she was just about to take off the light blue overcoat she was wearing but had stopped and went over to her son to wrap her arms around him, "Oh my, don't look so grim, Hide-kun!" she said cheerfully, "I know your sick, but you shouldn't get down about it, oh my."

"Mom, now's not the time," the boy said with slight embarrassment, he eyed Adam and Anna carefully and said, "Aren't you guys going to say something…?"

"Um…" Adam hesitated for a moment.

"Go ahead, you two," said Reborn, who had just randomly appeared out of nowhere like he usually did, "Tell Mama about what happened."

"Hm?" the mother looked up at them with interest, "Oh my, what happened, Anna-chan, Adam-kun? Oh my, I hope you guys were good to Hide-kun while I was gone!"

"Er, about that…" Anna began nervously.

"Yeah, um, Boss–I mean, Hide's room…" Adam began strongly but his voice drifted off into silence.

"Oh my, speaking of that, why aren't you in your room, Hide-kun?"

At this point, Hide then stared directly at Adam and Anna.

"Th-There's something we need to show you, Mama…" they said while slightly shaking.

**~8~**

"Oh my…" was all Mrs. Sawada could say when she saw Hide's room.

The once bright and cheerful bedroom that Hide had slept and woke in looked absolutely miserable. The bright blue wallpaper on the walls was now wet and peeling off, the wood that made up the desk was now soggy and if you touched it could have been squishy, and the aforementioned large burnt ring on the carpet that went all the way to the wood. The machine that had left the burn had, earlier, been disassembled and trashed.

"We're very sorry," Adam said apologetically.

"We only meant to help Boss–I'm mean, Hide…" said Anna disappointedly.

"Well…" the mother began thoughtfully and looked around the room again, "Oh my…"

"I-It was an accident!" the brother said desperately, "We didn't mean for it to happen! We'll fix everything, we promise!"

"Mama," she looked down and saw Reborn, who was dressed in construction clothes and a yellow hard-hat.

"Oh my! Where did you come from?" she asked.

"That's not important," he said in a strangely serious tone, "Mama, I've done a close inspection on the house after the incident and found that this, along with many other factors, has made the house beyond repair."

"What!" Hide yelped, "Are you serious?"

"Yes," his tutor nodded.

"Oh my, is that so?" the mother said.

"Mom, you aren't seriously believing him, are you?" her son said with disbelief.

"Why wouldn't I, Hide-kun?" she asked innocently, "He's a professional construction worker after all!"

"What?" he gawked, _Does mom not even recognize him!_

"Oh my, what are we going to about this?" she wondered aloud.

Hide quickly excused the thoughts of why his mother did not recognize Reborn and asked, "Mom, aren't you angry at Adam and Anna?"

"Not really," she said with a cheerful smile, "As long as they understood what they did wrong and are sincerely sorry about it, then there's no reason to be angry. Oh my, mistakes are all a part of growing up, Hide-kun."

"Thank you, Mama!" the twins said gratefully to her.

"Geez, mom…" Hide sighed and shook his head, "You're way too forgiving."

"And besides," she continued, "You're cold is better, isn't it? Then that means that Adam-kun and Anna-chan helped cure your cold, oh my, you should be thankful to them."

"Uh, then thanks, guys," he said weakly.

"We were happy to help, Boss!" Adam said cheerfully.

"Yeah, whatever," Hide muttered, "But mom, what are we going to do about the house?"

"Hm, who knows?" she said with a happy smile.

"Mom!" he gaped at her in amazement.

"May I suggest," Reborn began, "That you move to another house."

"Oh my, that's a wonderful idea, little construction worker!" she said cheerfully, "A bigger house would be really nice!"

"We'll help build it!" Adam quickly volunteered.

"You're not building anything," Hide stated.

"We'll help buy it!" the foreigner quickly changed his declaration, "We have plenty of money left over from our assassina-I mean, our parents."

"Oh my, you don't have to do that," Hide's mother said quickly.

"We insist!" he shouted.

"Mom, if they want to pay for a house, I think you should go for this deal," the son suggested.

"Oh my, well, I don't really like taking free things from children…" she said doubtfully, she turned around and added, "But if you both insist…"

**~8~**

The following week, the Sawada residence was moved to a much larger home. It was a two-story red roofed house that was still located about a block away from the old house, so Hide would still be going to the same school.

"It looks wonderful!" Mrs. Sawada exclaimed cheerfully, "Five bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and three bathrooms! It's the perfect home!"

"Ten million yen…" Anna mumbled while looking into her empty wallet, "That's over a hundred thousand U.S. dollars***…"

"Oh my, and now we have a room for you and your brother!" the mother continued, "Hide-kun, isn't this great?"

"C-can I get help carrying this?" he muttered while trembling under the weight of a large bookcase.

"No," Reborn stated while resting on the bookcase, "Now hurry up, there are three more of these things on the truck.

"Mom, why didn't you hire moving men?" the son asked weakly while trying to go up the steps of the building.

"Oh my, that's because Reborn-chan suggested that it would be cheaper if you did it!"she said cheerfully.

"Why does that not surprise me," he grumbled.

**~8~**

*** Both Adam and Anna call Hide's mom 'Mama'**

**** A de-humidifier is a real thing, in reality though they are actually really small.**

***** $113,378.67 to be exact :P**

**~8~**

**It's been a long week, I'm so glad it's the weekend now :) I didn't really know how to conclude this chapter, so the next one will be more about the new house Hide's living in and I shall be laying off new characters for a while because I realized that some people might be getting lost with whose who :P**


	38. Ch 38: Tanaka Megumi, PI

**Whew! Long time, no see! For those of you that don't visit my forum, and you really should, the art contest is ON! It started Dec. 15th and it will end on January 31st at midnight. The contest is a Fan-art contest for Fan Fiction, where you make fan-art for the various KHR-related fanfics! The judges are me, Echan1263, and Nehszriah, and the winner of each category that enters will get a choice of prizes between a drawing-commission by me or an attractive wallpaper by Nehszriah!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope you enter and have fun with the art contest! :D**

**~8~**

"Hide-kun, I heard you moved into a new house!" Hide's face paled and he slowly looked up to see Megumi leaning on his desk and smiling cheerfully at him, she added questioningly in a bright manner, "But I'm wondering why you moved out of your old house, it was a very pretty home when I saw it."

"It's probably best not to wonder," he muttered to himself quietly, unfortunately his crush was still able to hear what he said.

"Why not?" she asked innocently.

The bell rang for school to start and Hide quickly admitted, "O-Oh look, you should get to your seat or Kurokawa-sensei will get blamed again for not being in control of the students."

"That's right!" she nodded and quickly went to her seat in time before the first period teacher came in. Kurokawa was eventually scolded anyways for being late to class.

While he was being scolded by the first period teacher, Megumi couldn't help but notice that Hide gave a tired sigh as soon as she got to her seat. That was when she realized that whenever she actually asked something personal about Hide, the question would either be ignored or the subject would quickly be changed.

"Could Hide-kun be hiding something…?" she mumbled thoughtfully while searching through her text book.

**~8~**

Megumi resolved to confront Hide on the matter when lunch came along, but as soon as the bell had rung Kurokawa had grabbed him and rushed him out of the classroom while claiming that there was something extremely urgent that Hide was needed for and would probably be absent for the rest of the day.

"How strange…" Megumi said thoughtfully, "I wonder what it could be?"

"Probably something crazy," Hanabi said unhappily, "Now I don't have anyone to eat lunch with."

"I'll eat lunch with you, Gokudera!" Suzuki volunteered from a seat away from her.

"Who the hell would want to eat lunch with you?" she grumbled and noticed the large sack he was lifting up to his desk, "What's that for?"

"This?" he gestured towards it and answered, "These are just the lunches I got today, haha!"

"Who would want to give a lunch to you?" the bomber asked with vague disbelief.

"Lots of people give me lunches!" he said brightly, "All the girls in this class are so nice, they give me lunches everyday!"

"Well isn't that good for you," she rolled her eyes in a sarcastic manner and looked over to Megumi, "Megumi, do you want to have lunch together today?"

"Okay, Hanabi-chan!" the red-head agreed, "Let's ask Anna-chan to each lunch too!"

"Ugh, okay," the silver haired girl reluctantly agreed, "Where's the blondie?"

After finding Anna, whose brother was rather unwilling to have her leave, the girls walked to the courtyard to begin eating lunch. On their way to the courtyard, Megumi saw out of the corner of her eye a yellow puff of smoke coming from the gym and watched silently as both Kurokawa and Hide ran out gym screaming.

"What are they doing?" she wondered while watching the two run over the doors and press them closed with their bodies.

"What the hell happened in there!" Hide screamed at Kurokawa.

"I don't know, but I'm sure that thing had tentacles!" the assistant teacher yelled back, something pounded on the doors that almost made them fall back.

"It's nothing important!" Hanabi said with urgency, she took the red-head's shoulders and began steering her away from the direction of the gym, "L-Let's hurry and go to the courtyard, it's best not to get mixed up in these kinds of things."

"Maybe…" Megumi said with a hint of doubt.

**~8~**

They finally made their way to the courtyard, where the yellow smoke was almost completely out of sight, and began they began to eat their lunch. Megumi's mind couldn't help but wander back to what happened over at the gym, especially when Hide jumped over the hedge they were sitting next to with almost ten buckets in his arms and dressed in nothing but his underwear.

"GRAB WATER FROM THE RIVER WITH MY DYING WILL!" he hollered at the top of his lungs and ran off before anyone could ask anything.

"W-What was that about?" Megumi stammered in surprise.

"He was grabbing water from the river," Anna replied and, as an afterthought, added, "with his dying will."

"I've been meaning to ask this," the red-head began, "But what's up with this whole 'dying will'-thing? He's always yelling about that when he's in his underwear."

"Who knows," Hanabi shrugged while poking around her lunchbox curiously, she then looked up as if she remembered something and said quickly, "but doesn't the Twelfth always seem to look cooler when he's in his underwear."

"Uh, I guess?" she said in a confused tone.

"Or at least he does cool things when he's in his underwear," said Anna, she took a bite of a roll of bread that was in her hand and continued in a joking manner, "Maybe all of his super powers become unleashed when he's in his boxers?"

Of course, Anna knew the real reason why Hide would yell and run around doing really impulsive things in his underwear. Heck, Hanabi knew why also. But the two had both been sworn/scolded by Hide to not tell Megumi a thing about the Mafia or the reason why he runs around his underwear at in the middle of the day.

"Isn't it kind of weird though?" Megumi questioned, "I mean, it was cool when he first ran around the whole town naked and all, and it was pretty cool when he helped bring in new members for the Boxing Team that second time; but whenever I see him running around the town naked and yelling something about getting groceries from the store or getting dust out of his house, it makes me wonder if he's actually doing it on purpose or if someone or thing is making him do it."

The other two girls were completely silent for a few minutes before Hanabi said slowly, "That's…a bit observant for you, isn't it?"

"I guess," the red-head shrugged and smiled innocently, "This is only a theory, but I think that Hide-kun might be hiding some big secret from everyone; this secret might even be why he had to move a few days ago!"

"Is that so?" Hanabi couldn't help but have her gaze fall on Anna, who was distractedly looking into her newly emptied wallet, the silver-haired bomber turned back to Megumi and asked, "Are you sure? I think that if the Twelfth ever had a problem or was in trouble, he would tell us."

"Now that I've been thinking about it," the red-head began thoughtfully, "Why do you guys call Hide-kun things like 'Twelfth' and 'Boss'?"

The two fell silent again until Anna shot straight up and said, "Oh, well if you'll look at that! The lunch bell just rang!"

"No it didn't…"

"Oh yeah," she muttered, she pressed a button on a remote that was hidden behind her back and the sound of a bell resonated throughout the school, "Well if you'll at that! The lunch bell just rang!"

"Wai-what?"

"We better hurry or else we'll get scolded by the teacher!" Hanabi said hurriedly and immediately left with Anna right behind her.

"What?" Megumi's brow furrowed in confusion and she checked her cell phone for the time, "But my phone says that we have ten more minutes…"

Something was up, she later concluded, and both Anna and Hanabi were in on whatever it was that was up.

**~8~**

When Hide had come home from school, the Namimori Middle School uniform he wore was partly soaked and completely tattered, he nearly fell to the ground in exhaustion the moment he came to the steps of his door.

"I'm never going to think of that gym the same way ever again…" he muttered.

"Get up," something kicked his head, he guessed it was Reborn, "You wouldn't guess who's here."

"I don't care," he grumbled tiredly.

"Hide-kun!" a voice, whom he guessed was his mother, said cheerfully.

"What is it, mom?"

"Oh my, you never told me you had such a cute girl as a friend!" she said bashfully.

"What?" he lifted his head and looked at his mom, "What and who are you talking about?"

"Oh my, you know who I'm talking about!" she continued in the same manner, "That girl who came by to drop off your homework!"

"Homework…?" he recalled missing classes because Kurokawa had called him out for help earlier that day, "Oh yeah, I probably have homework."

"Hide-kun?" he turned his head and saw Megumi standing in front of him.

Hide's face paled and he immediately got to his feet and ran upstairs to his room.

"Mom! Why didn't you tell me that Megumi was here!" he yelled while he quickly got changed from his torn and shredded up clothes.

"Oh my, I thought you would be happy," she yelled back to him and winked at Megumi.

"Why would I be? This is embarrassing!"

"He gets so shy so easily," the mother giggled.

"I'm sorry if I came at a bad time," the red-head said apologetically.

"Oh my, no need to feel sorry, nothing is ever going on around here," she said cheerfully and then added as an afterthought, "Or at least not when I'm around."

"Mom!" Hide came stumbling down the stairs as soon as his mom finished speaking, he had changed from his shredded up school uniform to a teal-blue hoodie with that had white, unrecognizable lettering on it.

"Oh my, hello Hide-kun! You changed quickly!"

"Mom, you didn't tell Megumi-san something that I may come to regret later, did you?" he asked warily.

"Oh my, of course not!" she said cheerfully and winked at Megumi.

"Wait, what was that?"

"What was what?"

"You just winked at her!"

"Oh my, no I didn't."

"Yes! You did!"

After a few moments of bickering between the two, Hide's mom had to leave and go to the grocery store to buy dinner for them. This left Hide and Megumi alone in the living room.

"You and your mom seem to get along well," the red-head said cheerfully.

"Y-Yeah, I guess we do," he stammered and blushed crazily, "But she teases me a lot."

"Haha, I'm sure that's just her way of showing she loves you," she giggled reassuringly.

It took a few seconds for Hide to recover from his smitten-ness before he asked, "Um, what did you come here for again, Megumi-san?"

"Oh yeah, I brought you your homework!" she said sweetly and handed him the paper bag she was holding that was filled with assignments, "If you need any help on anything, just ask!"

"Thanks!" he said gratefully, he began looking through the bag and asked rhetorically, "I wonder why there's this much homework after missing only one day of school…?"

"Um," Megumi began, Hide looked at her and observed that she seemed like she had something she wanted to ask.

"Is there something else?" he asked.

"Uh, well…" she hesitated before looking up at him with a desperate look in her eyes and asking, "Hide-kun, is there something you're hiding from me?"

The bag of homework fell to the ground with a sound thud, "W-What?" he asked nervously, "What brought this up?"

"Well," she hesitated again before exclaiming, "I don't know why, but it always seems like you and everyone else are lying to me!"

"Huh?"

"Whenever I ask you about something, you always quickly change the subject; it's the same with Hanabi-chan and Anna-chan also! And when I start to think back to that time you guys got seriously injured during the summer, I don't think you ever gave me a real explanation for what happened then!"

Hide was stunned into silence by the sudden outburst she gave, he had never seen Megumi truly angry before; annoyed, confused, and suspicious, but never angry.

"Please," she said with a pleading look on her face, "Just tell me the truth…"

"Um…" Hide gulped and looked around, he didn't see Reborn in any of his camouflaged-glory around to distract Megumi and he thought miserably, _The one time I need him here to interrupt something!_

"Just tell me already, Hide-kun!" she said desperately, "I don't want to be the only one left out."

"I-I," his voice faltered, "I don't think I can tell you…"

"Why?" she asked, "Are you being bullied or something?"

"Er," he began uncertainly and thought to himself, _A little like that…_ but out loud he said, "No, it's not like that."

"Then why can't you tell me? I'm beginning to think you guys are doing dangerous things!"

Hide shut his eyes tightly and breathed in through his nostrils before staring into Megumi's green eyes and saying solidly, "We aren't doing anything dangerous."

She looked at him doubtfully for a second before shrugging and saying, "I believe you."

"Thank you," he said in the same solid tone.

"How about we just drop this subject," she continued sadly, "But in exchange, you have to promise me that you won't get hurt doing whatever it is that you're doing."

Hide was silent for a few moments before answering with a cheerful smile, "It's a promise."

"Good," she nodded and began heading out the door, "If you have any questions on that homework, tell me okay?"

"Yeah, sure," he waved goodbye to her and waited for the door to shut before running up to his room and screaming, "Dammit! I can't believe I lied to Megumi-chan!"

"Neither could I," said Reborn, who was sitting in what was a leather, reclining chair that was on Hide's desk.

Hide glared at his tutor and said accusingly, "It'asall _your_ fault I had to lie to her, why did you stay up here and not help me down there!"

"Because before you left, you told me 'Megumi-chan's here, no matter what I do _not_ want you to leave this room, got it?' I was only listening to what you told me."

"When have you _ever_ listened to what I said!"

"What was that?"

"GAAAH!" he screamed and did some more yelling into the pillow on his bed.

"It was quite a surprise that you lied to her though," Reborn said, "For a second there, I thought you were going to tell her everything about the Mafia."

"Well, I almost did," the boy mumbled sadly, "But I don't want Megumi-chan to get caught up in something as dangerous as the Mafia. This will be the only time I'll lie to her."

The infant-hitman stood up from his chair and jumped onto the floor of his student's bedroom, "You do realize that you cannot keep that promise you made to her."

"I know, but I can try," Hide sighed and ran a hand through his spiky, blonde hair, "I don't want her to be sad, I don't want to lie to her…in the end, it looks like I'm going to have do things I don't like. It's a good thing that I told Gokudera-san and Anna to keep Megumi-san away from this sort of thing."

"Hm," Reborn smirked and said, "You're beginning to think like a real Mafia Boss."

"I told you for the eightieth time! I don't want to be a Mafia Boss!" he yelled despite knowing that it was a lost cause when it came to Reborn.

**~8~**

**I hope you all liked this chapter! And remember to go onto my forum, Just another Forum, and enter the fan-art contest!**


	39. Ch 39: A White Day After Christmas

**To celebrate the day after Christmas, I wrote a chapter that was very day-after-Christmas-themed. :)**

**Enjoy this chapter and enter the art-contest! Do it now!**

**~8~**

"I remember when my life was normal," Hide sighed, "And when I had barely any friends and everyday was the same as the last…those were good times…"

"Shut up and put away Christmas decorations," Reborn ordered while pointed a Leon-gun at his student.

"R-Right!" he yelped and quickly grabbed a box that was supposedly filled with Christmas lights but the weight of the actual object seemed to lie about its contents, "What's up with this thing! It weighs a ton!" Hide groaned as his knees began to shake under the weight.

"To make them impossible to steal," Reborn explained.

"Who would steal Christmas lights!"

"Who wouldn't?"

"I think almost everyone!"

"Oh my, Hide-kun!" his mother called from the living room as he continued to struggle taking the box down to the basement of the house.

"Yeah, mom?"

"While you're down there, why don't you take out some of the New Year things?" she suggested.

Hide sighed again and asked, "Why can't Adam do it? He's stronger."

"Oh my, well it's the strangest thing," she began in an explanatory way, "I haven't seen Adam-kun or Anna-chan around at all today, oh my!"

"They're probably just avoiding doing chores," he muttered.

"Boss!" Nico ran up beside him with his arms outstretched, "Let me do it for you, Boss! I'm much stronger than I look!"

"Er," the older boy looked at him worriedly and said, "I think this may be too heavy for even you, Nico."

"Nonsense!" he declared, "Nico Bovino is the stronger than everyone in the world!"

"Yeah, right," he nodded and gestured to another box, "Why don't you get that totally not smaller or lighter box over there."

"Yes sir!" the little boy saluted and ran over to grab the box, but he fell to the ground after trying to pick it up, "What's up with this box! It feels like it just has weights in it!"

"That's because it does," said Reborn.

"Reborn!" Hide yelled and paused for a second of thought before asking, "Do I even need to ask why?"

"Nope."

"Oh my, Hide-kun?"

"Yes, mom?"

"Before you go down to the basement, could you go over to the grocery store and buy some more trash bags? We seem to have run out…"

"No problem, mom!" he said and immediately put down the box and grabbed his jacket, "It'll probably be really crowded at the store so it may take an hour…maybe two hours…who knows, perhaps all afternoon!"

"Get back soon," she said distractedly.

"Okay!" he said in a sing-song voice and quickly left the house, he ran out onto the street and looked around to see if Reborn or Nico or both had followed him.

"Shouldn't you be getting trash bags?" asked his tutor as he lounged on top of Hide's head.

"H-How did you get up there!" the boy yelped before his tutor jumped off his head and onto the street.

"That's not important," he stated.

"You're always saying that everything's not important…"

"No, just the things you say are unimportant."

"Why do I get the feeling that this argument will never end," Hide groaned.

"Hide-nii!" something latched onto his legs and caused him to fall the ground.

"Ow!" he yelped in pain.

"Hide-nii sounded like a herbivore!" Ahiru giggled.

"Hibari-chan?" he questioned while struggling to get up, "W-What are you doing?"

"Ahiru saw Hide-nii acting like prey," she began bashfully, "And Ahiru couldn't help but act like the predator."

"I'm beginning to wonder if you watch the Discovery Channel a lot, Hibari-chan," Hide muttered after pulling the girl from his legs and standing up, "And if so, I'm beginning to wonder if that's good for your health or not."

"Ahiru doesn't watch tv," she stated in an almost proud fashion, she noticed Reborn and immediately smiled, "Reborn-chan!"

"Ahiru," the infant nodded to her, "I thought that you were going to be baby-sat by Kurokawa."

"Takuma-nii is doing something today," she stated, "Ahiru thought it would be fun to play with Hide-nii today!"

"I have to do some errands for my mom though, Hibari-chan," he said.

"B-But its Christmas…" she began sadly and teary-eyed.

Hide's mouth fell open at this display and thought in horror, _Oh crap, did _I_ make her cry!_

"Uh, H-Hibari-chan, there, there," he said while nervously patting her back, "I, um, guess I'll play with you?"

"Yay!" she immediately began cheering happily.

"Huh?"

"You were just played, stupid-Hide," Reborn smirked.

"Hide-nii was played like an old video game!"

"What!" his mouth fell open again and he asked, "Wait, where in the world did you even hear of such a saying!"

"That doesn't matter," she said bluntly, this statement caused Hide to look at Reborn suspiciously, "Hide-nii promised to play with me!"

"No I didn't!"

"B-But its Christmas…"

"I'm not falling for that again! And its December 26th, Christmas was yesterday!"

"Don't lie, Hide, you said it all right here," Reborn began, a tape recorder materialized in his small hands and he pressed a button on the machine for it to declare: _"I'll play with you."_

"I think there's some parts missing from that sentence…" Hide pointed out.

"Hide-nii said 'I'll play with you' and you will play with me!" Ahiru said demandingly.

"I can't, Hibari-chan," he said, "I have to do chores for my mom!"

"Do it!"

"I can't!"

"Just do it already," Reborn threatened with a gun against Hide's head.

"What do you want to play?" he asked with a sudden change in attitude.

"Park! Let's go to the park!" she said excitedly.

"Wait!" they both turned around and saw Nico pointing an accusing finger at them, "Are you guys going to the park with Boss when he has important errands assigned to him by Mama!"

Ahiru paused for a moment of thought before replying cheerfully, "Yes!"

"Nico, you can come with if you want to," Hide said.

"Who would want to go with you bastards?" the little boy yelled and then quickly added, "No offense, Boss."

"Okay, then it will be just Ahiru and Hide-nii!" she cheered.

"What!" Nico yelped, "There's no way in hell that I'm letting you and the Boss play together without me!"

"In the end, you're just inviting yourself to come with us, huh?" he sighed.

"Ahiru wants ice cream!"

"It's freezing cold and you want ice cream?" Hide asked.

"I want ice cream too!" Nico pleaded.

"It's freezing! You'll both get frozen tongues or something!"

"Fine!" Ahiru pouted.

"You sure know how to ruin children's dreams," Reborn observed.

"Why are you making me sound like the bad guy!" his student yelled questioningly.

"Let's play tag!" Ahiru suggested, "Ahiru wants to play tag!"

"I don't want to play tag," Nico declared, "I want to play hide-and-seek!"

"Isn't that almost the exact same game?" Hide pointed out.

"Ahiru hates hide-and-seek," she said and added, "It's a herbivore's game."

"Quit looking down on me whenever you say 'herbivore'!" Nico yelled angrily.

"Stop fighting you guys," Hide warned, but it was too late. Somehow, a purple bazooka jumped out of Nico's backpack and landed on the two children.

"Oh great," the blonde Japanese dreaded as he watched two figures come out from the pink smoke of the Ten Year Bazooka.

Teen-Nico yawned sleepily as he was lying on the ground, "I had such a nice nap…"

"Whoever took me away from my duties as Disciplinary Chairman," teen-Ahiru began in a dark tone, there was a flash of metal that Hide could only assume to be her tonfas, "is going to be bitten to death.

"I-It wasn't me, I promise!" he quickly squeaked.

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before looking down at the fallen Nico, "You," she began, "You're the one that I always see when I'm suddenly taken away from my duties…"

"Hm?" Nico looked at her questioningly before brightening, "Oh, it's Boots."

Ahiru was now holding him up by the neck with his feet dangling half a foot above the ground.

"Now, now, Boots…" the teen began nervously, "You don't have to get hasty now…"

"I was in the middle of disciplining the order and peace of Namimori to some pathetic herbivores," she said darkly and added with a smirk, "But you'll suffice."

"Come on, it's not really my fault!" he said fearfully, "It was my younger-self's fault! Blame him!"

"What kind of stupid excuse is that?" she questioned.

"Oh, looks like Ahiru's bloodlust is about to be shown," Reborn observed while eating a bag of popcorn.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean!" Hide yelped and quickly asked, "Shouldn't we be trying to stop this?"

"You can," the infant said and pointed a green gun at him.

Hide was lucky enough to narrowly avoid being shot, but he fell on his butt to the ground and was forced to watch Ahiru begin to beat up Nico, "STOP IT!" he found himself yelling.

They all froze still and fell silent, but it wasn't because of Hide yelling. A small white thing quietly floated down from the sky and landed on Hide's nose before quickly melting. It was quickly followed by a flurry of white snow that fell in what seemed like a mixture of floating and dancing.

"Snow…?" he muttered.

"A White Christmas," Nico muttered happily before both he and Ahiru turned back into children with a puff of smoke.

"Snow?" child-Ahiru questioned before cheering excitedly, "Snow! Snow!"

"A Christmas miracle?" child-Nico wondered.

"It's December 26th," Hide pointed out but was soon kicked in the back of the head by Reborn.

"Don't spout random things," the infant scolded.

"But Christmas was yesterday!" he said but was once again kicked into unconsciousness by Reborn.


	40. Ch 40: Everybody Was Sword Fighting

**Sorry for the long and really unnecessary wait, mid-year exams are rearing their ugly, deformed heads next week and I shall be busy studying for stupid APBIO :C. But enough of this! Enjoy this chapter!**

**~8~**

The snow was great at first, with the first couple of inches and all but, as Suzuki Kouhei observed, it was now piling in massive heaps on the streets and sidewalks.

"I wonder how much it is," he mumbled thoughtfully and took a good guess, "Probably two feet or something like that."

The baseball player sat cross-legged in front of the window in his apartment, he had been sitting there for possibly a good hour watching the snow fall down in a mixture of slow and fast. He finally stood up and stretched his legs out before bracing himself to go out there.

"I'm so sick of staying here and sitting," he grinned to himself and wondered aloud, "I wonder if Mr. Yamamoto will teach me how to use that bat-sword thingy."

Suzuki pulled on two boots before heading out the door and being greeted head-first with nature's own snowball. He trudged out of his apartment and walked a few blocks before finally seeing a safe spot to rest away from the snow, Takesushi.

"Hey, old man!" he hollered after shutting the door and pulling his dark grey hat and scarf away from his face, he brushed the snow off of his coat and stomped his boots before moving onwards.

"Suzuki?" Hide poked his head out from the kitchen and greeted his friend, "What are you doing here? I thought you had the day off?"

"Yeah, I did but I was getting bored being walled up in my apartment," he said sheepishly before asking, "What about you? What are you doing here?"

"Reborn convinced my mom to have me stay here for a few days for 'special training' from my Gramps," he sighed and said, "I actually just got here too, so we haven't even started this weird training yet."

"Training?" Suzuki brightened when he heard the word, "Like sword training?"

"Possibly…" he said warily as he recognized the look in the baseball player's eyes, "Gramps used to be some kind of swordsman after all…"

"Can I join?" he asked.

"I think that would be a wonderful idea," said Reborn as a ceiling tile above their heads moved aside and he jumped down from there, "I'm sure Yamamoto will be happy to take you on as a student."

"That's great!" Suzuki cheered.

"Are we not going to address the fact that he just fell from the ceiling?" Hide questioned.

"But where is the old man?" the dark haired boy asked curiously.

"I guess we aren't…" the boy muttered and told Suzuki, "Gramps said that he would be in the basement with clothes to train in."

"There's a basement?"

"Oh yeah, you've probably never seen it before," Hide realized before shrugging, "Oh well I'll warn you now, down there's much nicer than up here."

"Wow, it is nicer down here," Suzuki paled a little at the Japenese-style dojo that was floored almost entirely with tatami mats, "And it's bigger too."

"Yeah," Hide sighed and shrugged, "I don't really understand why gramps put more money into building a basement down here to make it an expensive looking dojo instead of using the money for his failing restaurant."

"I didn't even know this place existed," the baseball player said while walking around the dojo slowly.

"Here," the other boy handed him a bundle of clothing and said, "Let's hurry up and get changed before gramps gets back."

A wooden screen door on one of the walls slid open and revealed Yamamoto in full dojo uniform with a few wooden swords under his arm. The elderly man looked surprised when he saw the two boys standing around in the dojo-esque basement.

"What's this?" he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice, "Kouhei's here too?"

"Hi, Mr. Yamamoto," the boy said diligently.

"Gramps, Suzuki's interesting in training with us," the grandson began, "Is that alright?"

"Sure! The more the merrier!" he grinned and put down the equipment under his arms, "I've got some uniforms and swords for you guys to start with right here."

"Cool! Thanks, Mr. Yamamoto!" Suzuki said before he and Hide went to get the equipment from underneath his arms.

**~8~**

After they were through with changing into a similar uniform that Hide's gramps wore, the two boys took up some of the wooden swords that Yamamoto had handed them and stared at them uneasily.

"Come on, boys, don't look at them like that!" the elderly man slapped the two on the back causing them both to fumble the swords.

"Sorry gramps," Hide gulped while keeping a cautious eye on the sword, "But I'm not really comfortable with holding a sword in my hands."

"Yeah, I'm not that great either," Suzuki admitted sheepishly.

"They're fake swords, though," he pointed out and added, "And besides, you'll both barely use them today since you're just starting out."

"Okay then," they both relaxed at this.

"Now then, let's start with the basics," Yamamoto took his own wooden sword and held it out with both hands on the hilt, "Get in this stance you guys, remember to spread you're feet apart like this with one foot in front of the other."

They both copied him warily.

"That's good!" he smiled brightly at them and raised his sword, "Now raise you're sword like this and put it down in a slicing motion. But don't just thrust it down with all your strength, do it lightly and hard at the same time, you know?"

"Aren't these directions a bit vague?" Suzuki whispered to Hide.

"Are they?" the blonde haired boy questioned innocently, "This is the way that gramps normally teaches me stuff."*

"Go ahead and do it you guys, like this," his grandfather thrust the sword downwards and looked at them with his usual flashing style, "Go for it!"

The two boys did so. Hide did it successfully, however Suzuki didn't. The sword that he had been holding onto somehow ended up going from his hands to his face.

"Suzuki!" Hide yelped and gawked in horror at the sight, "A-Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah," Suzuki muttered while rubbing his nose where the sword had hit his face.

"I thought this would happen," Yamamoto sighed.

"I thought you said you were good at baseball," said Reborn, who had been watching from afar this entire time.

"I said I played it and that I was captain of the baseball team," Suzuki said sheepishly while blood ran down from his nose, "I didn't say that I was good at it, there's a reason that this school's baseball team is the worst ever."

The infant was silent for a bit before looking at Hide and saying, "You said that he was the best baseball player in Namimori."

"I wasn't joking," the blonde said innocently, "Suzuki is the best player on the team, but you just have to look at the other teammates to know that he's probably the best. The whole team has no talent."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums everything up," the raven-haired boy shrugged.

"Then why are you on the baseball team?"

He shrugged again and said, "Because I like it, do I need any other reason?"

"Okay then."

"Wait," Hide began cautiously, "You're not going to hit me?"

"No, but since you said so," Reborn jumped up and kicked the boy in the gut.

"Ow!" he yelped in pain," I didn't mean that it was okay for you to hit me!"

"You need to stop sending mixed messages then," he said while he twisted Hide's arm behind his back.

"That didn't mean for you to twist my arm!"

"Stop playing around now," Yamamoto called to them.

"It's not playing around, gramps," his grandson mumbled, but the elderly man was too busy to take notice of this comment.

"Suzuki, did your nose bleed stop yet?" he asked.

"Hm?" the raven-haired boy looked up and felt his nose, "Oh yeah, I guess it did."

"Then let's get back to practice," he nodded.

"Okay," they both agreed as they got up from their new wounds and continued training.

**~8~**

"Well, I would say that you both did pretty well for today," Yamamoto said while grinning sheepishly at the two boys who had both managed to get bandages all over them.

"Seriously?" Hide muttered, "Suzuki kept on getting himself hurt and Reborn kept on getting myself hurt."

"Heh," his gramps chuckled and rubbed his chin, "You guys must be hungry, I'll make us some food."

"Okay," they said in a sing-song voice as he went upstairs to the kitchen, thus leaving the two boys and deadly tutor alone in the dojo-basement.

"This is getting tiresome," Hide mumbled softly while staring distantly at the wooden sword he had been practicing with, "I have those boot things, I don't see the point in learning how to use a sword…"

"A hitman knows how to adapt to any situation," Reborn declared.

"How in the world is that supposed to apply to me?" he grumbled.

"Hide, you want to try sparring with me?" Suzuki asked suddenly, he had been focusing on his practice sword the whole time since Yamamoto had left them.

"You sure you want to do that?" his friend asked worriedly and pointed at his forehead, "You knocked yourself on the head pretty hard."

Suzuki lightly touched his brown-bruised forehead with his fingers before grabbing his wooden sword with both hands and grinning, "Come on, I want to try something."

"Fine," he sighed and got into a stance.

They started. They finished. Rather quickly too, after sparring for only a few moments the sword flew out of Suzuki's hands and fell to the ground.

"That's weird," he muttered and rubbed his head again.

"I think you just need to rest," Hide suggested, "You're probably tired."

"No, not that," the raven-haired boy shook his head and bent down to grab the wooden sword, "I was just thinking about back then, during the summer, when we were at that old place that was rotting to the ground and changed a lot of times. For some reason I was good at using that surprise-bat there."

It took Hide a few minutes to realize that this 'surprise-bat' that Suzuki was talking about was the rusted, blue baseball bat that belonged to his gramps and, for reasons Hide couldn't even begin to conceive why, turned into a katana sword at some point.

"Maybe it's because you felt you were in danger?" the blonde wondered, being around Reborn and learning about the whole Dying Will-thing caused him to wonder if Suzuki may have activated his 'Dying Will' on his own.

"No," he shook his head, "I tried getting into that mood again when I was sparring you, and I did get into it. But something's missing."

"Maybe the problem isn't that something is missing," Reborn began, he stood with his arms to his back and was staring up at the baseball player with his black, beady eyes, "Maybe there's something that's there that wasn't when you were fighting back then?"

The two were silent for a few seconds before Suzuki said flatly, "I don't get it."

"I think you lost us, Reborn," Hide began warily.

"Suzuki," the tutor said to him, "When you're tone deaf, but you know how to play many instruments and can sing, right?"

"Well, my mom made me memorize each and every chord of every single instrument," he admitted with a shrug, "And she put me in voice lessons when I was four."

"And when you're playing an instrument or singing a song," he inquired, "What do you think about?"

Suzuki paused and said thoughtfully, "Um, nothing…now that I think about it."

"Do you really think of nothing when you're playing?" Hide whispered.

"Yeah," he shrugged again, "I just play, I don't really think about anything other than that."

"Then that must be it," Reborn concluded, "You're often distracted by other things that are going on around you, but when you focus you become better at it."

"Are you saying he has A.D.D.**?" Hide questioned.

"Sure."

"Don't say that so bluntly!" he yelled.

"That would explain a lot…"

"You're not supposed to accept that so easily!"

"If its A.D.D. then I just have to make sure I focus, right?" Suzuki asked and held the wooden sword with two of his hands, "Then let's spar until I get focused, right, Hide?"

"I don't think it works that way," Hide mumbled but gave in when he saw the determined look on Suzuki's face, "Okay, fine."

"We'll start on the count of three then!"

"Fine, fine."

"One!" Suzuki called out.

"Two!" Hide did the same.

"Three!" they both yelled and swung the swords.

**~8~**

"Did you tell Kouhei that he had A.D.D.?" Yamamoto asked Reborn at one of the tables in the restaurant, he had come back from the kitchen after putting the two boys in made up beds.

"I didn't tell him anything, he made that conclusion on his own," the infant said slyly and poured himself some tea out from a kettle.

"Now, that may be true," the elderly man began as he sat down in a chair at the table Reborn was at and took a cup of tea that had been poured for him earlier, "And it would explain an awful lot about the boy, but his mom will probably get angry at me if she knew that Kouhei self-diagnosed himself with A.D.D."

"I didn't tell him anything," he stated again.

Yamamoto took a sip of the warm tea and said, without even glancing at Reborn, "Did you notice?"

The hitman was silent for a bit before saying in a deadly calm tone, "Yes, Hide's growth is going faster than I expected him to, today was fact of that."

"Heh," the elderly man smirked and let out a small chuckle, "You know, I don't really take to this whole 'my grandson's the future Boss to an infamous and powerful mafia family'-thing very well."

"If you have a problem with it, then you should have taken that up with stupid-Tsuna," Reborn pointed out, "He is your grandson as well."

Yamamoto sighed with a sad smile, "It's times like these that I miss Domeki and his strange bunch," he shifted in his seat and continued, "Ever since Hide became the next candidate, I've heard that people have been slowly coming around to approving him when they start to hear good things about him, and then they start comparing him to the past candidates."

"That's never good," he frowned and asked, "Heard anything negative about Hide with these comparisons?"

The owner of the restaurant moved his shoulders up and down sadly, "They say that he's small and weak, like Sora. But they say that he's also nice and, in many ways, acts like Domeki."

"He'll grow into the role," Reborn shrugged at these comments, "And he'll never be as good as Domeki would have been."

"Who knows," Yamamoto grinned, "I know how long you've been around, Reborn, but even you must get surprised by ordinary things. People can change, Reborn, even in an extremely short amount of time, if they believe they can a person can change drastically."

Reborn grew silent again before saying, as if summing up his own thoughts, "We'll see."

**~8~**

***If you remember from the chapter about going to the beach, Hide has the weird ability to learn things the same way his gramps, Yamamoto, does; which is being taught vague and obscure directions about what to learn.**

****Attention Deficit Disorder, it's a disorder where someone is easily distracted, inattentive, disorganized, forgetful and hyper-active.**

**~8~**

**Weeeeiiiiirrrdddd chapter! I don't even know what I was thinking when writing this chapter…I wanted it to show that in contrast to Yamamoto-who is pretty much talented at everything he does-Suzuki fails at almost everything he does. Which I thought would be a hilarious twist to a character whom I have previously perceived as a person that is completely perfect.**

**And for those that haven't noticed, I revamped some of the chapters of Skywards, including deleting the first chapter, A beginning, and replacing it with the second chapter, Sawada Hideyoshi; the to the first chapter remains the same though and so does the first paragraph and a few others from the first chapter. There have also been some changes and re-editing on my part for a most of the chapters that have been changed and I shall give a cookie to those that catch it ;)**

**Another tidbit! All of the Al Cielo extras I have been writing will be DELETED….and be published into a NEW story on ! I have decided that these chapters will be 7 chapters long and there will also be re-editing done to them as well, but not too much to change the chapters that I have already written. One chapter, of the already written ones of course, will be posted once a day for the next few consecutive days.**


	41. Ch 41: Boxing Dilemma

**Sorry for the long wait, but I have an excuse…scratch that, I don't really have any excuses. Oh wait! I am taking the SAT tomorrow, cross my fingers so that I'll get a high score! **

**The contest at my forum ends on the 31st! AND we have no entries yet! Remember, the prizes will be from the author, Nehszriah, and I.**

**~8~**

The boxing tournament was beginning to rear its head and, much to Morita and Megumi's disappointment, almost none of the boxers in the boxing team were ready for it.

"Shiro-kun, you're going to have to at least _try_ to punch me if you want to win," Morita sighed at his sparring partner who was noticeably smaller and noticeably more scared.

"I-I can't!" he yelped before jumping over the ropes of the boxing ring and running away.

"Shiro-kun, the tournament's tomorrow!" Megumi called and ran after him.

"This has got to be the fifth time my training partner has run away on me in the middle of sparring," the captain of the boxing team sighed and rolled his eyes, he turned to the rest of the team, all of whom were all staring at him in silence, "I need another sparring partner, which one of you guys wants to practice with me?"

At that moment, they all began piling up at the door.

"Guys!" Megumi called for attention as she pushed her way through the crowd with Morita's former sparring partner in front of her, "The tournament is tomorrow, this is no time to be scared of Morita-kun! He needs help for the tournament!"

"I think he'll be fine with just staring at the opponents," this got a punch in the arm courtesy of Megumi.

"Don't say those kinds of things," she hissed, "Morita-kun needs help training just as much you guys do, and as far as I've seen none of you are even close to ready for the tournament tomorrow."

"We're ready!" one of the members shouted out before adding weakly, "We're just too scared to fight Captain Sakuraba…""

"That argument's not convincing, no matter how I look at it," she said flatly.

"Come on, guys, we need to train," Morita sighed as he got out of the ring.

"Where's Sawada?" someone asked.

"Eh?" the captain and manager of the boxing team looked up at the crowd at the same time.

"Yeah, where _is_ Sawada?" someone else asked suspiciously.

"Um, he was here only a second ago…" Morita said warily, "I-I wonder where he went also?"

"I don't think Sawada's actually _been_ to any of the boxing meets since we all joined," said one of the teammates out loud.

"Morita-kun…" Megumi pulled the captain aside and whispered, "They're figuring out that Hide-kun hasn't been here since the beginning of the school year!"

"I know!" he whispered back and turned to smile and wave at the team before looking at Megumi with a pleading look, "Do you think Hide's still here after school?"

"I'll go look," she nodded and quickly went away.

"Where is Megumi-chan going?" asked one of the boxers.

"She went to get Hide, the lazy bum," Morita said jokingly.

"Isn't it a bit unfair that Sawada-san hasn't been to any of the meetings, captain?" questioned the teammate that Morita had been sparring with earlier.

"Um…" he hesitated.

"We all know the guy's cool and all for what he did at the beginning of the year with that whole underwear-gig," he continued and looked to his teammates, "But other than that he's just a weirdo, don't you all think?"

They all slowly nodded as sudden realization came onto them.

"He is kind of weird…isn't he?" a boxer asked, but he seemed a little unsure about what he was saying.

"Yeah, I guess," another boxer said unconvincingly.

Morita heaved a heavy sigh and he prepared himself to fight off the remarks about Hide that were without a doubt that were about to happen.

**~8~**

"Hide-kun!" Megumi ran up to the roof and saw Hide with Ahiru standing on his shoulders, the little girl appeared to be trying to catch something in the air.

"Megumi-san?" the blonde questioned as he tried to balance the little girl on his shoulders, "What are you doing up on the roof of the school? Isn't the Boxing Team supposed to have practice today?"

"Hide-kun, we need you at practice today!" she said urgently.

"I thought you said that I only have to go to any of the matches or meetings."

"Hide-nii, stay still!" Ahiru ordered, "Ahibird is going to fly away, move left!"

"Okay, okay," he sighed and took a step to his left.

"Not your left, my left!" she huffed.

"We're both facing the same direction!" he pointed out and looked back at Megumi, "I'll be there as soon as we're done with this."

"What are you doing?" the red-head asked.

"Catching Ahiru's pet bird, it's up there on that ledge," he gestured upwards and added, "Though I don't see why Kurokawa-sensei couldn't have done this for you, he's like a foot taller than me."

"Got it!" the child smiled brightly, she immediately jumped down onto the ground with her hands clamped tightly together.

"Must be a pretty small bird," Megumi commented.

"There was a practice-thing for boxing, right?" Hide asked.

"Oh, right!" she grabbed his wrist and said, "Let's hurry!"

"Ahiru's coming also!" the little girl claimed and ran after them.

Hide was quietly in heaven at the fact that Megumi was touching hand/wrist, so he wasn't really paying attention to the fact that he was being dragged around by her to the horribly smelly Boxing Clubhouse.

"Morita-kun! I got him!" the manager quickly said as she led Hide into the clubhouse.

"Thank god," he muttered and pulled the blonde in front of him, "See? Hide goes to practice just like we all do."

"Then why haven't we seen him around lately?" one of the team members asked.

"Um, er," Morita hesitated.

"Are they complaining because I haven't been here?" Hide whispered to Megumi.

"It's smelly in here…" Ahiru muttered unhappily before quickly being hushed.

"Yeah," she nodded, "And the tournament is tomorrow also."

"Eh? Is it really tomorrow?" the boy said with a surprised look on his face, "Are you guys ready?"

"Not at all," she said flatly, "Especially Morita-kun, since everyone's too afraid to practice with him."

"Why doesn't Hide fight him?" suggested Reborn, who stood right behind Hide in red boxing shorts, gloves, and for some reason an elephant hat and white goatee.

"Who are you?" Megumi asked with keen interest.

_Do you not recognize him?_ Hide silently wondered.

"I am Master Pao-Pao," the infant declared, "I was once the master to the great Sasagawa Ryohei."

_What's with that ridiculous name!_ the boy's mouth fell wide open.

"Master Pao-Pao!" Ahiru brightened when she saw the disguised infant.

"How do _you_ know who he is?" Hide's gaped.

"Sasagawa Ryohei?" Morita interjected himself into the conversation almost immediately upon hearing the name, "You mean Namimori's legendary Rumblefish Ryohei?*"

"The one and only," Reborn nodded.

"Master Pao-Pao is the best teacher in the world!" Ahiru chirped enthusiastically.

"R-really?" he looked at the small girl and with much enthusiasm as she had, he then said to Reborn, "Master Pao-Pao, it would be an honor if you could temporarily teach us!"

"No," 'Master Pao-Pao' shook his head and said in a despairing tone, "Not today, today I shall just be watching. But if I may suggest something?"

"Go ahead!" Morita nodded obediently.

"Why don't you make Hide spar with you? He doesn't seem to be afraid of you like the other team members."

"Hm, you do have a point…" he began thoughtfully.

Hide ran over to Reborn and hissed, "Reborn! What are you doing! I'm not afraid of Morita-kun because he doesn't try to punch me! It's an entirely different story if he _is_ trying to punch me!"

"What do you say, Hide, wanna spar a little with me?" Morita asked eagerly, he tossed the boy some gloves and head gear.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Ahiru said cheerfully.

"If I say no, Reborn will just find a way to make me do it anyways, so yeah, sure," he shrugged and sighed reluctantly while clumsily putting on his gloves.

**~8~**

After they climbed into the ring, Hide kept a steady eye on Reborn, or 'Master Pao Pao' as he was now calling himself. If there was one thing that the poor blonde-haired boy learned from his time with Reborn, it was that Reborn=horrible amount of pain.

"Megumi," Morita called to the manager who had a bell in her hand, "Just start whenever, okay?"

"If that's the case," she smiled cheerfully and rang the bell, "Go!"

"A-Already!" Hide yelped at the surprising speed that Megumi rang the bell.

"Get ready, Hide!" Morita said with the exact same cheerfulness that Megumi had.

"Hiieee!" he screamed while struggling to dodge the punches that Morita was throwing, "Why so suddenly!"

"Quit being a wuss," Reborn began and suddenly lifted a lime-green gun aimed at his student's head, "And die." _Bang!_

_I'm dying…_Hide thought as his body slowly fell to the ground, _But the tournament…that's right, the tournament is tomorrow and Megumi-chan and Morita-kun were relying on me to get their team pumped up about it…but I'm dying…If only I had the will to get their team going…if only…_

"REBORN!" he jumped to his feet, clad in only his underwear and a brightly colored flame dancing on his forehead, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "GET THE TEAM READY FOR THE TOURNAMENT WITH MY DYING WILL!"

"Huh?" Megumi looked up at the underwear-only boy with a mouth hanging open, "Hide-kun?"

"YOU!" he pointed at two seemingly random boxers, "BOTH OF YOU, GET UP HERE AND SPAR!"

"But-" one of them began.

"DO IT!"

"Yessir," they both meekly agreed and scurried onto the ring.

Hide jumped out of the ring while Morita climbed out, and the blonde pointed at another two members and began dictating the rest of the team to do certain exercises; and if any member dared to question him, Hide would certainly yell: "JUST DO IT!"

Morita, who had been stricken silent this entire time, nervously raised a hand, "Um, Hide…weren't we supposed to be sparring just now?"

"NO!" the boy snapped at the other much taller and way more muscular boy, Hide then grabbed a nearby boxer and yelled, "YOU'LL BE FIGHTING HIM!"

"What!" the boxer and the boxing captain questioned while looking at each other incredulously.

"You want me to fight Shiro-kun?" Morita asked skeptically while pointing at the same teammate that had previously run away crying at the sight of Morita.

"What makes you so high and mighty to tell me what to do?" 'Shiro-kun' asked with raised eyebrows.

Hide grabbed the two by their arms and dragged them into the second boxing ring, all while yelling, "GET OVER IT!"

"H-Hold on, Sawada-san," 'Shiro-kun began fearfully, "C-Can't you pair me up with someone else?"

"Ahiru wants to box!" the young Hibari said cheerfully.

"Ahiru-chan, you're not allowed to fight!" Megumi quickly said.

"That's an interesting prospect," Reborn mused, a large purple bazooka seemed to materialize in 'Master Pao-Pao's hands, and after pulling the trigger on the bazooka a large cloud of pink smoke.

"What's going on?" Megumi coughed through the smog of pink.

"I'm going to bite someone to death…" a feminine voice began grumpily, ten-years-later-Ahiru slowly rose from the smoke while brushing dust off, she added sourly, "It's smelly in here."

"You're that girl I met when we were playing that quiz show game!" the red-head recalled cheerfully but then looked around and asked uncertainly, "But…where did you come from?"

"I'd like to know that also," teen-Ahiru said in a dangerous tone, her narrow onyx eyes focused on Hide, who was still in Dying Will Mode at this point.

"Who is that?" Morita questioned, as he did not recognize the girl.

"SPAR WITH EACH OTHER NOW!" Hide yelled and rang a nearby bell loudly for Morita and 'Shiro-kun' to begin.

"Ahiru," Reborn began.

"Oh, Master Pao-Pao," she nodded to acknowledge him.

"Would you mind helping this pathetic excuse of a boxing team win their tournament tomorrow?"

"What would I have to do exactly," she questioned.

Reborn smirked and used one of his boxing-gloved hands to gesture towards Morita and 'Shiro-kun'. "Beat them up," he stated.

A pair of tonfas appeared in her hands and her onyx colored eyes reflected off of the metal of the tonfa, "Let's do this."

"W-What's going on?" Morita paled as she walked over to them.

In one swift moment, the captain on the boxing team was on the ground with a black eye while Ahiru stood over him and glanced at 'Shiro-kun' and Hide, who was by now out of Dying Will Mode completely.

"Anyone else want to be bitten to death?" she asked dangerously.

"No!" the two shook their heads furiously and hopelessly.

**~8~**

Two minutes later, Ahiru turned back into her present-self and Hide and 'Shiro-kun' both had bloody noses and black eyes. Most of the boxers were circling around Morita and were all in a daze at what just happened.

"Six minutes this time," Reborn mused from nearby with a stopwatch in his boxing-gloved hand, "You're getting better at this, Hide."

"Gee, thanks," he muttered tiredly.

"Hide-kun…" Hide's eyes tiredly looked upwards at Megumi, who had a sort of desperate look on her face, "Today has been kinda weird, and I'm probably going to forget that everything that just happened ever happened."

"You know what?" he sighed, "I am perfectly alright with that."

The next day, Namimori Middle's boxing team came in second at the tournament; this feat may have been the result of Hide's momentary but strict whatever it was he had done, or it could have been that the boxing members found something other than their captain to be afraid of.

**~8~**

***I have no idea why, but in the manga and anime Ryohei calls himself 'Namimori's Rumblefish'…I understand the 'rumble' part of this but the whole 'fish' aspect of the nickname is kind of stupid.**

**So that's the end of the chapter, and going by the rate at which I've been writing lately I'll probably get the next chapter out in February. And to commemorate that and the fact that my birthday is two days after it, I will be doing a Valentines day special chapter that will mainly be focusing on Hanabi.**

**And, as always, please read and review :)**


	42. Ch 42: Valentines Mayhem

Valentines Day. One of the worst days of the year, or at least in Gokudera Hanabi's opinion. At this time of year, everything and everybody would always seem to become obsessed with hearts, candies, flowers, for some reason the color red, and, worst of all, chocolates. That's right; apparently in Japan it was tradition for girls to give chocolates to guys they like in the hopes that the recipient would feel the same way on Valentines Day. Megumi had explained most of this to Hanabi and Anna, who both didn't know the Japanese traditions.

Megumi had also asked the two girls if they would like to make chocolates with her as they sat with their desks crowded together for lunch.

"You can _make_ chocolate?" Anna asked with mild surprise.

"Um, yes," the red-head nodded uneasily before adding, "I can teach you guys how, if you want that is."

"I usually buy chocolate from the grocery store in bars," the blonde muttered thoughtfully.

"Those are candy bars, Anna-chan," Megumi sighed helplessly and quickly changed to a bright and sunny attitude, "But there is a way to make those at home, we could give them to people on Valentines Day!"

"Valentines Day?" Hanabi asked cautiously.

"Yeah, it's tomorrow," she nodded, "I was going to make chocolates for all my friends, you guys should join me! It'll be so much fun!"

"Learn how to make chocolate, huh…?" Anna began thoughtfully, "Sure, I'm interested in how that process works out."

"What about you, Hanabi-chan?"

"I don't know…" she said uncertainly.

"We could ask Hide-kun's mom to help us make them!" Megumi said cheerily, "I'm sure Hide-kun would love chocolates for Valentines Day!"

"I'll do it!"

**~8~**

The next day, after many long hours that were spent in the Sawada residence's kitchen, Hanabi came to school with a box full of chocolates.

"Hmph, I made these last night for the Twelfth," she said to herself triumphantly while staring intently at her package, "I can't wait until he eats them!"

"Those look good," Hanabi nearly jumped/punched Morita in the face when she heard his voice right behind her.

"Don't scare me like that, idiot-giant!" she yelled.

"Are those the chocolates you made with Megumi yesterday?" Morita asked.

"None of your business!" she immediately turned around and began walking at a super fast pace towards the classroom, it wasn't until a few seconds later that she realized Morita was still behind her, "Quit following me!"

"But we're in the same class," he pointed out.

"Then go a different way! I'm busy looking for the Twelfth!" she hissed.

"But there's only one way," he argued, "Geez, it's just going to class, don't make such a fuss about it."

"Shut up, I don't want to be seen with a loser like you."

"That's mean," he sighed before asking, "What kind of chocolates did you make?"

"None of your business," she repeated before seeming to think about it and saying, "But if you must know, I made dark chocolate truffles for the Twelfth."

"Oh, I didn't know you liked Hide," Morita said as he stared at the box of chocolates she was putting away.

Hanabi gave him a strange look and stated, "Of course I like the Boss, who wouldn't?"

"I think you misunderstood me…" he said slightly worriedly as they reached their classroom entrance.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, you give chocolates to the person you _really_ like, right?" Hanabi face paled as slow realization dawned on her.

"Oh shit…"

"You just realized this! ?" Morita's mouth hung wide open.

"Stupid Japanese-culture!" she hissed, "Megumi told me that you could give chocolates to people on Valentines Day, not to a specific person!"

"Well that's Megumi's idea of what Valentines Day is!" he pointed out, "Valentines day is when you give chocolates to the person you like-like!"

"So she thinks I like the Twelfth! ?" Hanabi yelped.

"I don't know, perhaps! ?"

"Why are you both yelling!" they both turned around and saw Hide and Megumi standing besides each other while watching the other two curiously.

"N-No reason," Hanabi stammered in a really quite voice.

"Yeah, no reason," Morita repeated also in a small voice.

"Well, can we get into the classroom now?" Hide asked.

"Huh?" the two realized they were standing in front of the door and quickly moved aside, "Oh, right."

"Alright-y then," Hide walked slowly past them.

"Hanabi-chan, did you give you-know-what to you-know-who yet?" Megumi whispered to the silver-haired girl as she walked past.

"A-About that…I think we have to talk about something," Hanabi whispered back nervously.

"Get in class you guys," they both scurried into the classroom after the assistant teacher, Kurokawa, spotted them. He soon came after with a large binder under his arm and said, "Alright guys, since your homeroom teacher is sick today because of…" he took out a note in his pocket and read aloud uneasily, "'Broken Heart Disease'…okay look, point is, your teacher's not here so I'll be taking attendance."

"Okay," the class echoed in sing-song voices.

"Hey, Gokudera!" Hanabi heard the annoying voice of Suzuki Kouhei behind her, the baseball player continued to whisper to her throughout the whole class, "What's that you got in your bag? It smells pretty good!"

"Shut up, pretty boy!" she hissed back at him.

"Fine, fine," Suzuki shrugged as he sat back in his desk, after a few seconds he leaned forwards and whispered to the girl, "Hey, hey! I think I know what's in your bag! It's choco-!"

In one swift movement, Hanabi launched herself over the desk and flew a hand over the baseball player's mouth; she growled threateningly, "Shut up, shut up or I'll kill you now."

"Gokudera-san, what are you doing?" Hide wondered with a look of horror on his face as he sat in the desk besides Suzuki's and watched all this happen.

"Er…playing tag?" she claimed unhelpfully.

"Yeah, on second thought, don't tell me," he mumbled and buried his face into his text book with embarrassment.

"Hey, Gokudera-san, get back in your seat!" Kurokawa yelled at her, "How many times have I told you that you can't kill Suzuki-san in the middle of class?"

"Twenty-seven including now," Hanabi sighed and slowly got back into her seat.

"Or Morita-san?"

"Thirty-six then," she shrugged.

"And Grandhart-san?"

"Forty-nine."

"And everyone else?"

"Fine!" she threw her hand up in the air, "Seventy-two, happy now?"

"Not really," Kurokawa grumbled before resuming role names.

"Psst! Gokudera!" Suzuki continued to pester her, even after the threats, "Who are the chocolates for? Or are you giving them to everyone?"

Hanabi then froze up in her seat and subtly turned around to whisper, "Everyone?"

"Yeah, 'Obligatory Chocolates' are chocolates you give to friends on Valentines Day," he explained before asking with a mused expression, "Did you not know that?"

She turned around stiffly and blushed, "O-Of course I knew that!"

_Thank god, I'm saved!_ Hanabi thought happily, _I'll just give these chocolates to anyone! That way the Twelfth won't think that I like-like him!_

**~8~**

As soon as study hall came along, Hanabi immediately dug through her bag before finally procuring the box of chocolates she had made.

"Here!" she handed a few truffles to Suzuki and ordered, "Take them!"

"Eh? I didn't know you like-liked me, Gokudera!" he joked as he remembered their previous conversation.

"Don't be an idiot, pretty boy," Hanabi remarked in a stuck up tone, "These are, what you Japanese call, 'Obligatory Chocolates' I am obligated to give them to you!"

"Hahah! You're really funny today, Gokudera!" the baseball player laughed, "Sure, I'll take them!"

"Heh, one down the whole school to go…" she smirked to herself before brightening and saying aloud, "Oh right, I should give some to Nagi as well!"

"Don't forget Morita and Adam!" Suzuki chimed.

"No one's talking to you anymore, baseball idiot!" she yelled before running out of the classroom.

"What just happened?" Hide questioned from besides him.

"Hahaha, I don't really know but it's pretty funny!" the other boy laughed.

**~8~**

"Nagi! Take these chocolates!" Hanabi ordered her brother, who was currently doing a part-time job as the school's janitor.

"What?" he asked in his usual spaced-out tone of voice.

"Just take them! They're a Valentines Day gift!" she yelled.

"Right, right," he nodded and took a few truffles, "Oh yeah, Hanabi?"

"What is it?"

"Is it safe for me to be eating these when I'm so close to a bunch of cleaning chemicals?" he questioned.

"That's your own problem," she pointed out, "And you're eighteen, aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"School is stupid."

"Then why are you working in one! ?"

"You should give some of these chocolates to the young Twelfth," Nagi suggested while chewing on a truffle, "I'm sure he would very much like these."

"I know, I know!" she rolled her eyes before leaving her brother to mop the hallways.

**~8~**

"Twelfth!" Hanabi called out cheerfully as she ran up to her beloved Twelfth, she noticed Adam and Anna were with him, "Perfect! The two Americans are here also!"

"Do you call anyone by their real name?" Hide muttered to himself before saying aloud, "Hi, Gokudera-san."

"Twelfth! I made chocolates for you for Valentines Day!" Hanabi announced proudly and then gave a disgusted look at the other two, "I guess you guys can have some also…"

"That's unusually nice of you, Gokudera-san," Hide noticed much to her joy, "I don't normally get Valentines Day presents from anyone."

"Not even the ones you get that passed out to the whole class?" Adam wondered.

"No, I blended in too much and everyone forgot about me," he said with a hint of pride.

"Is that really something to be proud of…?" he wondered.

"I already gave the Twelfth the chocolate bars I made, Smoking Bomb," said Anna as she had her own box of chocolates in front of her, "You can have one too."

"Heh, thought the same thing, right?" Hanabi winked at her knowingly, the blonde girl was completely confused by this gesture as the bomber reached into her box of chocolates and grabbed a bar.

"I think they're pretty good," the brother pointed out while devouring the rest of his chocolate bar, "It was Anna's first time in front of a stove too!"

"Right," the bomber nodded as she reluctantly remembered how the former assassin had kept trying to put in, for some reason, oregano into her chocolates. Luckily, Megumi was the one that stopped her from doing so. Hanabi bit out of the bar and two seconds later grabbed the bottle of water straight out of Hide's hands, "It's spicy as hell!" she yelled.

"I put chili powder in the chocolate while Megumi wasn't looking," Anna explained.

"Why would you do that! ?" she yelled.

"Because brother likes spicy stuff, and I read somewhere that spicy stuff and chocolate goes well together," the blonde girl shrugged.

"How much did you put in?" Hanabi questioned suspiciously.

Anna showed her thumb and forefinger, they were a considerable distance from each other, and stated "About this much,"

"Are you trying to burn off everyone's taste buds! ?"

"I like them," Anna's brother defended her, "It cleared my sinuses right up and it's so good it's making me cry."

"It's alright in small pieces," Hide suggested quietly as he nibbled the ends of the chocolate.

"Thank you very much, Boss," Anna thanked politely.

"You're lucky that the Twelfth is so kind, blondie," Hanabi scoffed as she present her box of chocolates to him, "Here Twelfth, I made some chocolates for you!"

"Eh? More?" he paled a little before asking cautiously, "W-What kind are they?"

"They're dark chocolate truffles!" she exclaimed, "I rolled them in cocoa powder also!"

"Okay," Hide nodded and silently took a truffle from the box, he stared at them for a while before asking, "Why are they the size of baseballs?"

"I didn't know how big they should be," she shrugged in her defense.

"Right, well…here goes nothing," he took a bit out of the baseball-sized chocolate ball and after a few seconds affirmed, "Wow, this is pretty good."

"I win! In your face, blondie!" Hanabi thrust a fist into the air triumphantly.

"I don't get it, was there some sort of competition?" Anna asked with a confused look on her face.

"I want one too!" Adam grabbed a truffle from the box and offered half of the chocolate to his sister. After the two took one bite, they both spat it out and ran out of the room.

"What was that about?" Hide wondered he then froze up and paled, a hand flew to his mouth as he moaned, "I think I'm going to be sick…"

"Huh?" the bomber's face went blank as she watched her beloved Boss run out of the room, seconds later there was horrible puking sounds that could be heard from outside the classroom.

The school's intercom came on and a voice announced throughout the school, "_Students, please avoid the third hallway in first-year's floor, the janitor has collapsed for unknown reasons._"

Hanabi's mouth was hanging wide open throughout the announcement.

**~8~**

"How'd the whole chocolate thing go over?" Morita asked when he found Hanabi sitting outside the school gate alone.

"Horrible, Twelfth got sick and so did the Grandhart twins, and apparently the stupid baseball idiot had to be hospitalized," she grumbled and stared at the box of chocolates that were at her feet.

"Were you're chocolates seriously that bad?"

"I think one of the ingredients I used were rotten," she sighed.

"Let me have one," Morita held out an open hand.

Hanabi raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Why would I let you have one?"

"We're friends, aren't we?" he pointed out, "And friends share gifts with each other, don't they?"

"Um…" she began hesitantly, "I guess so…"

"Then let me have one.".

"I…I don't know," she began but before she knew it, Morita's bandaged covered hands grabbed her box of chocolates and she watched him shovel them into his mouth.

"D-Delicious," he stammered while holding back the urge to throw up.

"You know you can spit it out…" she said after noticing the look of pain on his face, "Really, you can spit it out. You look like you're about to crap your pants."

"Thank you…" he coughed after spitting out what was left in his mouth, "My insides felt like they were on fire."

"You didn't need to say that though."

"Sorry," he apologized before asking, "Are you feeling better now?"

Hanabi rolled her eyes and stood up, she smiled at him, "Whoever said that I was feeling bad?"

**~8~**

Meanwhile, a few feet away and watching from a corner of a wall, Megumi smiled to herself as she watched Hanabi and Morita talking.

"Looks like Hanabi-chan finally gave those chocolates to him," she said with an amused expression on her face.

Many things can be born out of Valentines Day. Including food poisoning.

**~8~**

**EXTRA! Here's a little extra that I hope you enjoy!**

The day started out the same as most others, except this morning Hide happened to be walking with Megumi instead of his usual group for some reason. Not only that, but it was also Valentines Day and Megumi had given him chocolate! Granted, it was obligatory chocolate but it was still chocolate on Valentines Day.

And now they had walked to school together and were even being seen walking to class together, Hide couldn't believe what a great today had been so far! If only Reborn hadn't woken him up by flipping his mattress over completely, it would have been a great morning.

"Hide-kun, what kind of girl do you like?" Megumi asked him as they walked to class.

"What kind of girl?" he wondered and immediately thought, _Megumi-chan is asking me what my type is! Is she interested in me? Maybe if I just go right ahead and tell her, she'll realize that I'm talking about her!_

"Well?" she stared at him with interest.

"I actually have a girl that I like right now," he began slowly while watching her facing for any reaction, "She's the most popular girl in school and I've liked her for a while now, but she only realized that I existed until last spring. I used to like her because she was really pretty, but since I've gotten to know her I've realized that she can be a little oblivious to her surroundings and she jumps to conclusions at times too. But I still like her…"

"What's so great about this girl?" Megumi asked him cluelessly.

_I just described you!_ Hide paled.

The red-head then brightened her expression suddenly and asked, "Do you like Hanabi-chan?"

"Absolutely not!" he exclaimed.

"Is that so? Then who could you be describing?" she wondered with a perplexed look on her face.

_It's you! I'm talking about you!_

"Oh well," she shrugged and smiled at Hide, "Happy Valentines Day, Hide-kun!"

"Yeah, Happy Valentines Day," he responded slightly dejected before noticing Hanabi and Morita shouting at each other for some reason…

~8~

**So that's my Valentines Day-themed chapter, and I feel like killing myself since it's Valentines Day here and I have nothing better to do but this…I'm so pitiful D:**

**Happy Singles Awareness Day, a.k.a S.A.D!**


	43. Ch 43: Manners, Manners

**School has managed to meddle in the affairs of all that's great and good in the world, that's my excuse.**

**~8~**

"I'm home!" Hide announced as he walked in the door of his house with suitcases and rolling luggage with him. He wore a green and white blazer jacket, and jeans on. Immediately, he dropped all of his stuff by the stairs and went to the living room to laze on the living room couch, "God, I don't think my couch has ever felt this good in my life!"

"Oh my, Hide-kun!" his mother cried out happily upon seeing him on the couch; she immediately ran over to him and hugged him tightly, "Wah~! Hide-kun, you're finally back from Gramps' place! Kyaa! Oh my, did you grow taller?"

"Mom, I saw you last week at Takesushi," the son pointed out, "And I doubt I've grown taller."

"Oh my, that's so mean, it's felt like months since I saw you!" the mother pouted.

"Like I said, last week," he then asked, "Where's Adam and Anna?"

Mrs. Sawada then let go and said thoughtfully, "Oh my, they're around here somewhere, they said something about giving you a 'coming back home' present."

"Oh. Joy," he paled at the idea of what horrible present they would get him, "I can't wait to see what they'll get me…"

"Be grateful for what you get, idiot," Reborn smacked him upside the head.

"Ow!"

"Reborn-chan! Oh my, it feels like forever since I last saw you!" Hide's mom squealed and hugged Reborn tightly, "Kyaa! Oh my, did you grow taller too?"

"A hitman never grows taller."

"Kyaa~! So mysterious, oh my!" the mother squealed in adoration.

"That makes no sense…" her son grumbled in pain.

"Oh my, I'm going to make a big feast for everyone!" she said cheerfully before adding, "I know! I'll go to the store and buy some stuff, oh my!"

"Can I come with also, Maman?" asked Nico, after he had suddenly popped out of no where.

"Gah! Nico, I forgot you lived with us now!" Hide yelped in surprise.

"Oh my, sure you can come with me, Nico-kun!" his mom said cheerfully, "We'll go out soon, alright?"

"Right!" the younger boy said cheerfully.

"Wait, are you guys leaving right as I get home?" Hide asked worriedly.

"Oh my, that's right…" his mom looked a little downfallen before adding brightly, "But it can't be helped right? Oh my, this party is for Hide-kun after all!"

"Eh? But what if I'm hungry right now?"

"Oh my, there are some chips around here somewhere," she said thoughtfully and then repeated cheerfully, "But it can't helped!"

_The moment I come home everyone decides to leave the house…great…_ Hide thought negatively.

"Bye Hide-kun!" he heard his mother call from the front door and listened for the door to close before going to the kitchen sadly.

**~8~**

"Hide, I've noticed that your behavior is extremely crude and unbearable to watch," Reborn stated after watching his student carefully.

"Oh gee, thanks," the boy muttered as he devoured the bag of chips his mom had left in a pantry, sadly, "Another thing to brighten my day

"If you are going to become a mafia boss, you need to learn proper Italian manners," Reborn continued.

"For the billionth time," Hide began, "I'm not going to be a mafia boss."

"Which brings me to my next point," the infant took out a remote with a large red button on it, to which he pressed.

Adam and Anna then came out of no where and got on each side of Hide. Both of them put on a thick, black, bracelet on each arm. Both bracelets were made of black metal and were large enough to cover a fourth of his arm

"W-What is this?" he, looking up at the twins and Reborn, questioned, "What did you guys do? And how did what I say bring you to this point!"

The sadistic tutor again pressed the large, red button somehow causing Hide to feel a sudden jolt of electricity run through his body.

"GAAAAAH!"

"Screaming spontaneously is considered to be rude in Italian," the infant stated and pressed the red button again.

"THAT'S NOT HELPING!"

"Students don't yell at their tutors," he declared and pressed the button once more.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!"

"You're going through my special Manners Course," Reborn explained before pressing the button again, "Every time I push this button, 1000 jolts of electricity will run through your body. And I will only push the button like so," he pressed the button again, "whenever you do something disrespectful such as yelling unnecessarily."

"That's ridiculous!" Hide protested and looked at Adam and Anna, "Is _this_ supposed to be my 'Welcome Home' present?"

"Of course not," Adam shook his head, "Reborn just asked us for a favor."

"And isn't this method a little extreme?" the student questioned while rubbing his arms sorely, "It feels like my arms are cooking."

"Shut up," Reborn pressed the button again, causing the boy to scream in pain.

"W-What was that for!"

The hitman had to think for a few seconds before answering, "Questioning my authority."

"You just wanted to shock me, didn't you?" he asked before being shocked again.

**~8~**

"Yeah, this isn't working out for me," Hide muttered.

"Don't shorten your words lazily," Reborn pressed the button again.

"Fine! This _is not_ working out for me!" the boy yelled.

"Better," the infant smirked, "What's not working out?"

"Well, first off, you are sitting on my head with a large red button ready to shock me at any moment while I'm walking in the streets," he pointed out.

"I will only shock you if you begin not acting like a proper Italian Boss," Reborn clarified and spun the remote around in his hands, "Now stand up straight."

"GAAH!" he yelped as the electricity shot through his body, he quickly fixed his posture and continued to walk towards his gramps' restaurant.

"Hide-kun?" he completely stopped as he heard the familiar, and really cute, voice, Hide slowly turned around and saw Megumi smiling and waving to him.

"I thought that was you, Hide-kun!" she said as she ran up to him.

"H-Hey, Megumi-san," he waved back to her nervously.

"All Italian gentlemen address girls by 'Signorina' or 'Signorita'," Reborn ordered and pressed the button again.

"H-Hello, Signorina Megumi," he winced and held back the urge to scream in pain.

"Now greet her properly," the tutor warned as his tiny finger hovered above the button.

"G-Good afternoon, Signorina Megumi!" he quickly said and winced as he expected horrible amounts of pain to happen.

"Um, hi?" she raised an eyebrow and smiled at him, "What's with the 'signorina' stuff? And you don't have to be so formal with me, Hide-kun."

"Yes, I do!" he nodded furiously.

"Don't move around so much," Reborn pressed the button again.

"Geh," Hide flinched, but luckily it wasn't too big of a movement to make Megumi notice.

"Reborn-_Signore _Reborn is trying to teach me manners," he quickly explained.

"You're doing behavioral lessons?" she immediately brightened at this and said reminiscently, "I remember doing those when I was little! My parents put me in classes for it too, and in the classes they had us do horrible things like carry books on our heads and learn where to put silverware on a table, things like that."

"It's something like that," he gulped as his eyes wandered upwards to where Reborn had calmly been sitting on his head.

"I remember it being a pain to go to those classes, but if you have Reborn-kun teaching you then that's pretty adorable," she smiled brightly and looked up at the infant atop Hide's head, "Reborn-kun, what kind of manners are you teaching Hide-kun?"

"Speaking, eating, walking; the basics," he shrugged before smirking evilly and asking, "Would you like to join us?"

Hide's mouth fell open at this request and he yelled, "What!"

This rewarded him with another painful shock.

"Sure, I'll do it," Megumi smiled.

"M-Megumi-I mean, Signorina Megumi, that may not be the best idea," Hide warned with a desperate look on his face.

"Nonsense, I think this is a great idea!" she said cheerfully and turned to Reborn to ask, "Reborn-kun, what kind of things can I help with?"

_She's just ignoring me now, isn't she…?_ he thought helplessly.

"You can help stupid-Hide with his manners around girls," the infant suggested.

"That's perfect! I know how to act like a proper lady also!" she then turned around, coughed, and turned back to Hide, "It is a pleasure to see you on this fine day, Signore Hideyoshi."

_So formal!_ he gawked at this display of manners, "G-Good day to you, Signorina Megumi."

"Is this not fine weather we are having today?" she asked politely.

"Yes, fine for the season," he answered solidly.

"You're doing better than the idiot here, Signorina Megumi," Reborn complimented her before taking out a different remote and pressed the red button on it. A door slid open from the street and a dining table that was already set and decorated with candles and food rose up out of seemingly no where.

"What the heck is up with this!" Hide's mouth fell open, he didn't care at this point if he was shocked painfully.

"This is to test your manners with a lady in a formal dining setting," Reborn explained and ordered, "Sit."

"R-Right," Hide nodded and quickly sat down in the chair, only to be shocked again, "What was that for!"

"You always pull the chair open for the lady and let her sit first, idiot," the infant scolded him.

The boy's face went red with embarrassment and he quickly pulled the chair out for Megumi, "S-Sorry Signorina Megumi!"

"Haha, no problem Signore Hideyoshi!" she giggled and sat down in the chair.

"Today's meal is spaghetti," Reborn announced as he pulled the metal lid off of a plate of spaghetti, "And since we are using Italian manners, it is always polite for the gentleman to eat any sauce or liquid that could potentially ruin the lady's dress."

"What kind of weird rule is that?" Hide questioned.

"An Italian one," the infant stated before hitting the red button again.

"I don't know much about Italian culture, but if that's the rule then that's the rule," Megumi shrugged.

Hide grudgingly slurped most of the spaghetti sauce (and there was a lot of it) from the plate, and once he was done he honestly felt like he was going to throw up.

"I think tomato sauce doesn't set well in my stomach…" he grumbled.

"Now that the gentleman is done protecting the lady from ruining her dress, you may both now eat," Reborn told them and then added, "But you have to use your hands."

"Okay, now that's obviously not true," Hide pointed out.

"It's how they do it in Italy," the sadistic infant stated before giving him another excruciating shock.

"W-Well…let's eat?" he suggested after recovering from the pain, he and Megumi slowly began to eat the spaghetti with their hands. They soon had to stop, however, when both Adam and Anna jumped out of no where in suits and sunglasses with toy guns in their hands.

"Freeze!" they both shouted.

"WHAT!" Hide's mouth fell wide open.

"Is this part of Italian culture also?" Megumi asked curiously.

"Hide," the boy realized that Reborn had appeared on top of his head again, "In this situation you are having a dinner with a lady, but then two hitmen from a rival mafia family come out and suddenly attack you."

"Is this some kind of scenario training now!" he screamed and grabbed Megumi, "Signorina Megumi, come this way please!"

Hide made a grand total distance of three meters before suddenly stopping and finding out that the street now had a gigantic hole in it, on the other side was Hanabi who was giving her beloved boss a thumbs up.

"Oh, and you were dining on the edge of a cliff," the infant added as an afterthought.

"Reborn-san told me you wanted a crocodile moat, Boss!" she shouted from across the large and very deep hole, "But I didn't have any crocodiles or that much water, so I just made a big hole!"

"You _really_ didn't have to do that Gokudera-san!"

"Die, Vongola-scum!" Anna shouted as she pulled the trigger on her gun, a small pellet shot out of it and nearly hit Hide's foot. The ground next to Hide's foot then immediately began to melt like ice on a hot day.

"Is that _acid_!" he shrieked.

"Maybe," Reborn said innocently.

"Hm, this toy gun isn't doing anything for my range," Anna said while distractedly staring at her gun.

"This way, quickly!" Hide yelped as he grabbed Megumi once more and ran past the blond while she was distracted.

"Anna!" her brother called to her, thus snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Oh no, I let them get away," she said in a disinterested tone before turning back to the toy gun in her hands, "But I thought of a way for this thing to help my range."

"Anna, while you stand there and modify your gun, I'll actually be going and getting them," Adam sighed.

"Have fun," she ignored, and waved him off.

**~8~**

"Signore Reborn!" Hide shouted at his tutor, "Why are you getting Megumi-san caught up in all this crazy stuff!"

Reborn rewarded his student with yet another painful electric shock, "Don't you mean _Signorina_ Megumi?"

"Fine! Signorina Megumi-san!" he yelled and was about to go off on a huge rant but stopped when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"It's alright, Signore Hideyoshi," Megumi said understandingly, "That's just how Italian culture is."

_Does she seriously think that was an entirely normal thing to happen in Italy!_ Hide thought in horror.

"Oh no! The time!" her green eyes widened as she stared at the watch on her wrist, "Sorry Hide-kun, but I have to go home! Let's do this some other time!"

"A-Alright," he said good bye to her helplessly before turning his attention back on Reborn, "Don't ever do that again."

"Do what?" Reborn questioned innocently.

"Gee, I don't know how about that whole bit where Anna and Adam started randomly shooting at us!" he yelled in frustration at Reborn.

"Oh, that," the infant continued innocently, "A hitman must be prepared for any situation."

"I'm not gonna be a Boss!"

"Don't shorten your words lazily," Reborn stated and pressed the red button on the remote again.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

**~8~**

"Gramps, I'm back…" Hide muttered tiredly as he walked into Takesushi and sat down at the sushi bar.

"Yo, Hide!" his grandfather welcomed him cheerfully as he walked out of the kitchen wiping his hands on a wet towel, "Hey there, Reborn!"

"Ciaossu," Reborn nodded at Hide's gramps and jumped onto the bar, "I want codfish today."

"Haha, you're funny kid!" he laughed turning to his grandson and asking, "What's with those giant bracelets you have on, buddy? Are those the new style for kids to wear these days?"

"No, they're Reborn's bracelets," said Hide with a sour look on his face, "Reborn is trying to teach me manners."

"That's 'Signore' Reborn to you," the infant stated and immediately pressed the button on the remote again.

"Fine! Signore Reborn!" the boy yelped in pain.

"Haha, you guys get along so well!" Yamamoto laughed.

_That's only what you think, gramps!_ Hide thought in horror.

"I'm surprised you came back so soon, buddy," his grandfather continued, "Did you really like my training that much?"

"Well, it's more like mom decided to throw me a huge feast and she pretty much left as soon as I got home," he shrugged, "I didn't want to be all alone at home, so I came over here."

_I can't tell gramps that I'm actually afraid to be alone in the same room with Reborn, _Hide silently added in the back of his mind, _and that I'm probably being hunted down by Adam and Anna right now…_

"But anyways," Hide continued after shaking the thoughts from his head, "I was wondering if you needed a little bit more help around the restaurant?"

"Hm," Yamamoto began thoughtfully, "Well, if you'd like you could work here for a while since Kouhei is with Shigure."

"Shigure?" the grandson questioned, "You mean his mom? Wasn't she in Russia?"

"Yeah, some things came up and she ended up here, so she's spending a few weeks with Kouhei," he explained, "Your mom will be pretty happy to see her also."

"Oh yeah, they were friends since elementary school, right?" Hide wondered before sighing, "But then again, my mom has a lot of weird friends."

"Don't talk bad behind people's backs," Reborn stated before pressing the button on the remote again.

"Geh!" he flinched.

"Haha, so what do you say, buddy?" Yamamoto leaned against the sushi bar and grinned at his grandson, "Do you wanna work here for a while?"

"Sure, why not?" he muttered while recovering from the pain, "I lived here for about a month anyways."

"Great! You can start tomorrow after school then!" he said cheerfully and laughed, "Haha, just like when you were little and you helped me out!"

"Yeah, except now I'll be doing something other than serving drinks, right?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course, you'll move up to being able to serve all of the food this time!" Yamamoto laughed cheerfully.

"Yay, now I won't spill just drinks on me," Hide sighed but shrugged it off since this meant that his grandfather was starting to see him as older, "Well at least here I can relax a bit."

Almost right after saying that, Adam and Anna ran in and pointed their guns against Hide's head.

"God, what is it now!" Hide groaned.

"Out now, or we'll shoot," Adam threatened.

"Haha, looks like you kids are having some great fun," Yamamoto laughed and waved good-bye to his grandson, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay buddy?"

"N-No! I think we're perfectly fine inside Takesushi!" Hide said pleadingly.

"A hitman is always compliant with his kidnapper's wishes," Reborn stated and pressed the red button again.

"GAAAAH! Why is kidnapping etiquette involved in a manners lesson!" Hide screamed before painfully following his kidnappers out of Takesushi.

"The situation this time is when you're idly sitting at a café alone and kidnappers come and attack you," Reborn explained patiently while following on wall against the streets of Namimori.

"I thought I was in my gramps' sushi restaurant…" his student pointed out.

"Don't argue," the tutor scolded him and pressed the button once more.

"Hey Hide!" the charred blonde turned around and saw Morita running after him.

"M-Morita-kun!" his mouth fell open in shock, he then noticed that Adam and Anna were both distracted by Morita as well.

"Freeze!" Adam threatened with a raised toy pistol.

"G-Get away Morita-kun!" Hide yelped.

"Eh? Why?" the boxer cluelessly asked while he came closer.

"Because-!" he began but stopped when Adam shot him.

Morita then got back up and licked the red liquid on his arm, "Ketchup?"

"Eh?" Hide's mouth fell open.

"Oh yeah," Adam said thoughtfully as if he had just remembered something, "I probably should have mentioned this sooner but Anna's gun is full of acid, while mine's just full of ketchup."

"Is this really an 'Oh yeah' moment…?" the blonde-Japanese muttered.

"I get it, you guys are playing that Mafia game again right?" Morita grinned and grabbed his arm, "Oh no! I'm shot!"

"W-What are you doing?" Hide dared to ask.

"Acting like I got shot of course!" the boxer laughed.

"Bang," Adam said and shot Morita in the chest.

"Oh no! I'm dead!" the boxer continued to idiotically laugh.

"I don't think people say they're dead when their dying, Morita-kun…" Hide pointed out but he then noticed that Morita was now ignoring him and was acting dead, _Wait, what was the use of being here if you were just going to die!_ Hide gawked and noticed that both of the twins had their attention preoccupied with the dead Morita.

_That's right! Now is my chance to escape!_ the reluctant Boss thought triumphantly.

**~8~**

Five minutes later, Hide was running down the street and was screaming his head off.

"AAAAAAAH! What the heck is with that crazy gun you have now, Anna!" he screamed.

"I modified it," she said while running after him.

"GAAAAH! What did you do! Modify it into a machine-gun!" Hide screamed.

"A bit," she said shyly while continuing to shoot.

"Why are you acting shy about it!" he screamed while running away, "GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

**~8~**

Luckily for him, he soon lost Anna along with the horrid bracelets that they managed to get on him in the first place. As Hide wandered back home and the sky was turning orange from the sunset, he contemplated the horrors that he faced on his first day home.

"My life is as miserable as always," he finally concluded while rubbing his cooked arms, "Ow, I knew they were gonna feel raw by the end of the day…"

As he reached the front gate of his house, Hide was surprised to see someone leaning against the gate. This person was female, she looked like the same age as Nagi, and she had shoulder-length brown hair.

"Uh, excuse me," Hide began as he approached her cautiously, "Can I help you?"

"Hm?" she turned towards him and, after staring silently at him for a few seconds asked, "Are you Sawada Hideyoshi?"

He gulped and nodded hesitantly, "Y-Yeah?"

"Good, we need to talk."

**~8~**

**Gasp! Suspense! Twist! And so on and so forth.**

**Sorry for not updating in a while, I probably lost quite a few readers in my following but oh well, that happens. Uh, soooo I was originally going to finish the side-story to Skywards, called Al Cielo, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon so I'm starting the next major arc now instead of later, like I promised to some of the readers, and I'll just write the Al Cielo chapters as I go on.**

**Whether this last part counts as the introduction for the next arc is up to your imaginations, but I hope you last as long as I do on this whole struggle.**

**Thank you for reading! :)**


	44. Ch 44: The New Deal

**2 consecutive weeks of updates! I'm so proud of myself! :D**

**~8~**

"We need to talk," this woman, whom Hide had just met, spoke as if she had known him most of his life, and for all he knew she probably did. The woman wore entirely black, her jacket was black, her pants were black, and her shoes were black. This part of her unnerved Hide a little.

"Y-Yeah?" he repeated nervously as the boy had some vague idea of what she was going to talk about.

"It's about your heritage, Sawada Hideyoshi," she began.

"Heritage?" he repeated and then his mouth fell open in horror, "Heritage! Is my bastard of a grandfather involved in this!"

"Something, yes," she nodded patiently, "Well, what I actually wish to do is simply offer you a once in a lifetime deal."

"Er, what is it?" he questioned suspiciously.

The woman then looked around cautiously and said, "Let's speak somewhere else."

"Huh?" Hide raised an eyebrow curiously and was about ask, "What do you mean?" when he noticed a rope ladder came out from the sky.

"Climb," the woman ordered him.

"Eh? To the sky?" the blonde asked with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"No, to the hovercraft," she said and took out a remote which she pressed a button on it, a large black machine mysteriously appeared in the sky with an indigo-tinted mist surrounding it, "Now climb."

"R-Right!" Hide yelped and quickly climbed up the ladder.

As he soon came close to the open door that was waiting for him, he felt a hand grab his shirt collar and pull him inside hovercraft. He both felt and heard the door suddenly shut behind him in a loud _clang!_ which made him yelp.

"W-What about that lady?" he worriedly asked.

"I'm already up here," she said, Hide spun around and saw the same woman that was on the ground behind him now right before him.

"H-How did you get up here so quickly? I thought I was ahead of you and-and-!" Hide stammered.

"He hasn't taught you that yet?" she interrupted and then shrugged before he could give an answer, "Oh well, you probably aren't even ready for it yet anyways."

"For what?" he asked without thinking and then realized that he probably didn't even want to know the answer.

The woman smirked at him and said, "For the Flames."

The words stuck forever in Hide's head, and deep down in his mind he knew for a fact that hearing those words would forever change his life. He was silent the whole ride in the hovercraft, he could not see neither the woman nor anyone else in the machine very easily as it was dim and dark. At one point he swore he saw that one of the guys in the hovercraft with him had a large scar on the side of his forehead.

Immediately upon feeling the hovercraft stop, the doors opened and a large gust of wind swept inside, bright lights blinded him as he stumbled outside. He then realized that it was night, that they were on top of a very tall building, in a very large city, and there was definitely no escape.

"This way please, Vongola Twelfth," the woman he had met earlier guided him off of the rooftop and into some ritzy high-class lounging room where he was sat down on a red velvet chair that had golden, or at least gold-painted, arms and legs.

"This is much better," the woman smiled a very pretty smile at him and sat down in the chair opposite of him, in between them was a glass coffee table that was decorated with a bowl of assorted fruits, "Now, to get back to the discussion we were having earlier."

"R-Right," Hide nodded nervously.

"I have a deal for you," she continued.

"I remember you saying that," he nodded again.

"I'm glad you do," she smiled again and said, "My name is Delia, by the way, and those men you probably saw in the hovercraft were all members of the Varia."

_Varia?_ Hide remembered the familiar word, _Wasn't that the assassin group that's with the Vongola and the same one Chloe is apart of?_

"They are also my underlings," Delia added.

"U-underlings!" Hide yelped, "M-Making you th-their-?"

"Boss? Correct," she nodded and smiled again, "I am Delia, head of the Varia."

"EH!"

"Well, the last boss, Xanxus, died recently, so I have been named the new head until they get things sorted out," she shrugged and added, "But while I'm head of the Varia, there is also another title I have that involves the Vongola."

"Y-You do?" Hide gulped.

"Yes," she said and stood up, then put her hand over her heart and said "My full name is Sawada Delia, candidate for the title of Vongola Twelfth. I am your cousin, Sawada Hideyoshi."

"EH!" he repeated, "I thought I was the last candidate left for the Vongola title!"

"That was originally true, but your father and the Eleventh had another brother named Kyoshii," Delia explained as she sat back down, "I am his daughter, and I was originally passed up for the candidacy because of my participation with the Varia. But our grandfather decided to be lenient on his rule and said that I could count as a candidate also."

"Th-Then that means that I'm not going to be a mafia boss anymore?" he asked hopefully.

"On the contrary," she shook her head and said, "We are both candidates now, and because of that we both must go through a ceremonious fight over the title, called the Ring Battle."

"Ring Battle?" Hide groaned and then added cheerfully, "Wait, but if I lose on purpose then you can just be Boss and I won't have to, right?"

"Ah, well that's a problem, see?" Delia let out a small laugh and said, "The Ring Battle is a battle in which each side picks six people that are close to them to act as 'Guardians' and these people fight against the other side, most of the time to the death."

"H-How can you say all this so easily…?" Hide groaned.

"That's because I have an assortment of deadly professional assassins that would rather die than be defeated by whomever you chose," she said light-heartedly, "And also, they will probably accidently kill anyone you chose."

"W-Why are you telling me all this!" he yelped.

"That's because I have a deal I wish to strike up with you, Hideyoshi," Delia began with a sly smile on her face, "You are not only related to the Tenth but also to one of the Tenth's Guardians, Yamamoto Takeshi, who is your mother's father. Because of this heritage, you have the rare ability to not only have access to the rare and prestigious Sky Flame but also a surprisingly pure Rain Flame."

"W-What are these 'Flame' things you're talking about?" Hide gulped nervously.

"Eh? You don't know this either?" she questioned and then shrugged, Delia raised a fist that had a ring on one of her fingers and said, "Watch." The ring suddenly burst into a shimmering orange flame that was all too familiar to Hide.

"The Dying Will Flame!" he yelped.

"So you do know it," she nodded, "Well, you probably don't know that there are different types of flames as well, this one is called the Sky Flame."

"I-I see."

Delia then shouted, "Aggie!"

The next thing Hide knew, he was frozen still with a peculiarly shaped knife at his neck and a blonde-haired stranger sneering at him.

"Stop that, Aggie!" Delia scolded the man while pulling him away from Hide, "Hideyoshi, this is Augusto."

Augusto had lots of blonde hair, there was so much of it that it completely covered his eyes. He also wore clothes that were similar to Delia's black leather clothes except that Augusto wore a clothed hood over his head. Augusto also had a creepy looking smile that made Hide shiver.

"Shishishi," the man snickered, "What's this? I thought you called me in here to kill the brat, Dog."

"Quit calling me 'dog' already, I'm you superior now!" she slapped him on the back of his head and said, "I called you in here to show Hideyoshi your Flame."

"Just that? How boring," the assassin complained but showed off a ring to Hide that soon burst into a harsh red fire.

"What Aggie has is called the Storm Flame," Delia explained before turning back to Augusto and said, "You can go away now."

"I was planning on it, shishi," he snickered and then disappeared.

"Idiot," she mumbled after he left and then said aloud, "That was an example of a different type of Flame other than the one you've probably seen already."

"R-right…" Hide nodded and shivered as Augusto's creeping smile haunted him.

"Ah, but anyways, Yamamoto Takeshi, your other grandfather, had an abnormally pure Rain Flame," she quickly explained, "Its only logic that the Flame would be passed down through your heritage, you understand?"

"I think so?" he said unsurely.

"And so, this brings me to my next point," she said calmly, "Sawada Hideyoshi, I propose that you become my Rain Guardian."

The statement made Hide severely confused.

"Guardian…" he began slowly, "As in the person that fights for you in the Ring Battle…?"

"I'm sorry, I think I said that incorrectly," she apologized and explained, "If you become my Rain Guardian, you will automatically be disqualified as a candidate for Vongola Twelfth. So there will be no Ring Battle, and no one gets hurt."

"So, if I do this I won't become a Boss anymore?" he questioned.

"Yes," she nodded and added, "Even though I am an assassin, I do not wish to fight meaningless battles. In a sense, that's my laziness."

"A-And there will be no fighting also?" he asked.

"Yes," she nodded again.

_This is great!_ Hide thought in delight, _I won't be Twelfth anymore! No one will get hurt anymore! Thank you god! Buddha! Anyone!_

"You look happy," she smiled, "That's good."

"Yeah! I can't believe your taking such a horrible burden off of my shoulders!" he said with relief.

"Great, and as a plus since you're just a Guardian you won't have to do anything unnecessary like fly to Italy at awkward times! It's great, right?" she said cheerfully, "You're entire life will go back to the way it was! You'll have almost nothing to do with the mafia, and every tie you have with the Vongola or any sort of mafia other than being my Guardian will be cut away from your life. Severely."

"Yeah, yeah!" Hide nodded but paused and asked, "Wait, what was that last part?"

"You'll have almost nothing to do with the mafia!" Delia repeated happily.

"No, the part about any tie I have with the mafia will be cut," he said, "What does that mean?"

"Very observant, huh?" she continued while smiling, "Well, since you asked, excluding all blood-related family, anyone involved with the mafia or Vongola that has associated with you will be hunted down and killed by the Varia. This is the best way to make sure your life will be safe and secret from the rest of the Mafia Underworld. Even that man you just met, Augusto, will have to be killed."

"Eh? But isn't he your subordinate?"

"Yeah, but that's all he is. He's replaceable."

"But everyone has to die? Why?"

"To keep you and your family safe," she repeated patiently, "The Mafia Underworld is a dangerous place, and unless you want to protect them yourself, you'll have to just trust me, alright?"

**_But that's not fair!_** a voice echoed in his head.

"But that's not fair!" he repeated without really thinking, he quickly covered his mouth with both hands and thought, _It's that voice again! That voice from when we were in that underground base!_

Delia was silent for a moment before pulling out two envelopes from her jacket and laying them on the coffee table.

"My, my, you're a confusing kid, Hideyoshi. But since you're family, I'll give you a second chance. Take the left envelope if you want to take my deal and become my Rain Guardian thus reverting back to your regular lifestyle; but take the right envelope if you wish to go back to the way things are now and be prepared to go against me and the world's most powerful assassins."

Hide gulped and nervously looked from the letters back to Delia.

"Look, I'll even turn my back," she turned around to where she wasn't facing him and said, "See? After taking the envelope, just leave. Alright? I promise not to do anything to you."

The boy looked back down at the letters and got out of red velvet chair slowly. He continued to stare at the envelopes and clenched his sweaty palmed fists.

Delia waited for a while to hear the door from the room shut to a close and she waited five more seconds after that before turning around and examining the coffee table. She smiled at the results.

"I thought he would pick that one."

**~8~**

Hide wheezed air in and out of his lungs as he stood in the hotel elevator nervously and prepared to run straight out of it. He clenched the envelope close to his chest then held it out in front of him.

"Crap, what did I do this time!" he groaned and whacked himself with the envelope, "Stupid, stupid Hide!"

After almost causing himself a papercut on his forehead, Hide slumped down in the elevator miserably. He was quickly surprised and a little freaked out when the envelope opened itself up and a few pieces of paper unfolded themselves out of the envelope. Each paper had an orange flame atop of it that burned brightly. Hide noticed the words that looked like they were carefully handwritten onto the paper.

"W-Wow, is this an actual letter?" he found himself saying in amazement, "I can't believe people still write these by hand these days, but what's with the orange flame on it…?"

The letter with the orange flame atop it read:

_Dear Hideyoshi-kun_

_If you are reading this then that means that you have passed the test, congratulations! I knew that Delia would be the best person to give you this test, she even came to me to ask what she could do to help further your progress to become Vongola Boss. Oh yes, do not worry about the Ring Battles that she was talking about, although they are real Delia is still not counted as a candidate because of her involvement with the Varia so you do not have to worry about them hunting you and your friends down to kill each of you! Haha!_

_Reborn has told me many things about you from the letters he's sent me and phone calls I receive from him. He often talks about the experiences that you went through that were quite similar to mine, chasing after girls, avoiding girls, going through his torturous tutoring, struggling to pass, and meeting new weird and bizarre people. I am very proud of you, and I am still very sorry for involving you in all this._

_From, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Vongola X_

Hide clenched the letter in his fists and crumpled it up until it was large paper wad, "That's so dumb!" he yelled in frustration, "Stupid old man! Saying that he's 'very sorry' he doesn't even know what I'm going through! Argh!"

**~8~**

"Shishi," Augusto snickered as he reentered the room Delia was in, she sat on the chair she was in earlier and was eating an apple, "How'd it go, Dog?"

"Quit calling me that," she grumbled before saying aloud, "It went perfectly, though I'll admit that for a second there I thought he would choose the left envelope instead of the one from the Tenth. But I was prepared since the left is the poison-laced one."

"Shishishi, what would you have done if he did choose the laced letter?" he asked while knowing the answer.

"Well, I do have an antidote," she began slowly, "But if I did accidently not get it to him in time, then it wouldn't have bothered me to become the next Vongola Boss."

This response made Augusto burst out in delightful laughter, "Shishishi! As expected of the Varia Boss! Shishishi, right Dog?"

"Quit calling me that," she frowned, and took another bite of her apple, "Reborn will be pleased that he still has a student, at least. Right, Uncle Yuuto?"

A man with spiky, blonde hair and caramel brown eyes stepped out from behind a pure white pillar, he wore a black, pin-striped, Italian suit and held a matching fedora with a silk black ribbon wrapped around the band.

The blond man smiled, "Perhaps."

**~8~**

Somehow, Hide managed to get back home, and even though he got home at almost midnight, his mother and friends were still waiting to give him the huge feast that was prepared earlier.

"Welcome back!" they all cheered.

"Y-you guys are still here?"

"Of course we're still here, Hide!" said Morita, "We're your friends after all!"

"Well, we're still here because we kinda sleep here," Adam shrugged as he stood next to his sister.

"Oh my, Reborn-chan told us that you would be coming home late, Hide-kun," his mom said cheerfully, "So I made sure that the food was still warm and fresh for you!"

"Reborn did?"

"Oi, Hide," the boy spun around and saw Reborn standing on the dining table, "What happened to those electric bracelets that you had on? Those were expensive you know."

"Is that all you have to say to me at this point!" Hide questioned angrily.

"Where did you put them?" the infant repeated in a deadly serious tone.

"I-In the park next to the sign!" he quickly said.

"Do you need me to go get it for you, Twelfth!" Hanabi quickly volunteered.

"No! I'll go get it for you, Boss!" Nico piped in.

"You're both not going to get it because it's almost midnight!" Hide pointed out.

"As expected of the Twelfth! He cares about the well-being of women and children!" the two then began overly glorifying the blonde, much to his embarrassment.

"I don't think that was even a proper sentence," he pointed out again.

"Time for presents!" Adam suddenly announced, he held a large red and green wrapped box over his head, "Ta-da!"

"W-What is that?" Hide asked cautiously as it was set in front of him.

"Open it! Open it!" Nico and Adam cheered in sync.

The reluctant Boss opened it hesitantly and found that there was nothing but packaging peanuts inside.

"Eh?" he wondered and tipped the box upside down, he looked up at Adam and Anna and asked, "Is this all just packaging peanuts!"

"Hey, its bubble-wrap too!" the male-Grandhart said defensively.

Something finally fell out of the box with a gentle thud on Hide's lap, the boy looked down and saw a small, metallic cube that had a keychain on it.

"A box?" Hide questioned as he studied the cube in his hand.

"Anna worked really hard on it, Boss!" Adam said proudly.

"I stayed up past my regular sleeping hours to make that, Boss," Anna said before yawning, "I also made some for everyone else."

Hanabi and Morita were also presented with small keychain-cubes that were different colors.

"We have one left over for Suzuki, but since he's not here we'll give it to him later," Adam said as he stuff Suzuki's keychain in his pocket and took out his own keychain.

"Why don't I get one?" Nico demanded, "I want one!"

"Annoying brats don't get one of these," said Anna as she pushed him away and said, "These are very special, and very hard to make. Don't lose them."

_What kind of 'coming home' present is that!_ Hide wondered in shock as he held the keychain in his hand.

"Why is mine red and the Twelfth's is orange?" Hanabi asked as she noticed the colors.

"Because I made them that way," the blonde girl stated, "Deal with it."

"Thank her properly," Reborn ordered while smacking around his student.

"Th-thank you, Anna," the boy whimpered in pain.

"Let's eat everyone!" Hide's mother announced cheerfully, "Hide-kun, you can play with your present later."

"Alright mom," he said and quickly set the small cube on the coffee table in the living room and went into the kitchen.

The lights in the living room were soon turned off and the whole room was pitch black except for the crack of light from the kitchen and the small keychain that appeared to glow orange off of the kitchen's light.

**~8~**

**So mysterious…:O There will be an update of Al Cielo later today that will explain who exactly Delia is, so please be patient! :)**

**And I lied! The next chapter will be another filler but there will be a good ending to it, and I promise it will be a good and funny chapter. And then after that chapter, the new arc will finally start! I'm still deciding when to end the first chapter of the arc, so you know it's gonna be good! :D**


	45. Ch 45: Culture Play

**Dame-Hide**

**A note from the author ahead of time: 'Dame' is pronounced 'Daa-meh' like 'Dame-Tsuna', hence the whole subject of this chapter.**

**~8~**

"Dame?" the word came out of Hide's mouth questionably one morning before class.

"Yes, Dame," Suzuki nodded conversationally as he sat face to face with the other boy, "Apparently a long time ago at our school, there was this really hopeless kid called Dame, he was super bad at sports, school, even his social life. Nobody really remembers his real name anymore and they just call him 'Dame', but he's still a legend on this campus."

"Why? There are lots of kids like that who aren't good at anything," he pointed out.

"Well," the baseball player began with a cheerful smile, " one day, Dame changed drastically at everything he did, and while he still made the same old stupid mistakes he became much more reliable and was even looked up to by most of the student body. Now Dame's practically a legend at school, he's almost fairy tale!"

Hide paused for a second in thought, of course he had heard the numerous rumors of the legendary no-good student 'Dame', but it was quite rare for Suzuki to suddenly start these sorts of conversations with him. "Why are you telling me all this?"

His friend's cheerful smile disappeared and was replaced by a sheepish grin that admitted, "I'm just warning you, alright?"

"Warning me of what?" he asked but the school bell rang right after asking that and everyone had to go to their seats.

"As everyone knows," began the assistant teacher, Kurokawa, as he entered the class, he announced at the podium "The culture festival is coming up along with your rise into the next grade. I believe Tanaka-san, your class representative, will talk more about that."

"Thank you, sensei," Megumi chirped politely as she walked to the front of the room with a thick black binder in her hands, she opened the binder on the podium and asked, "Alright, does anyone have any suggestions for the culture festival?"

"A play!" someone shouted.

"Alright then," she said cheerfully, "What kind of play?"

"We should do one about the legendary stupid student!" someone else suggested loudly.

"The Dame-student right?" the red head asked before receiving confirmation.

"W-Wait a second…" Hide muttered to himself, "This whole process is going way too easily for any normal culture festival class meeting…"

"Who wants to play Dame then?" Megumi finally asked.

"I vote Hide-san!"

"Sawada-kun!"

"Me too!"

"Hide-kun it is then," she nodded while writing his name down.

_W-What!_ Hide's jaw almost hit the ground.

"Sorry, Hide," Suzuki whispered from in front of him, "I heard that the whole class was conspiring against you since the beginning, so it couldn't really be helped…"

"Why did they choose _me_ to be Dame?" he whispered back.

"Uh, how do I put this…" the other boy began slightly nervously, "Well…er, it's just that you're the perfect fit for the role is all…"

_What is that supposed to mean!_

**~8~**

"And that's how I got the role of 'Dame' in our class's play…" Hide explained to his tutor while walking home from school.

"Is that so," Reborn said in an unimpressed tone while reading the script for the play.

"Can you at least try to sound surprised?" the boy asked in vain before giving up and sighing in defeat, "Oh well, we're only doing one of the rumors about Dame that have been circulating around the school."

"There is more than one rumor?" asked Reborn while he still read the script.

"Yeah," Hide nodded and added, "there's one about him challenging his crush's brother, who was captain of the boxing club, there's another where he defeated the me most fearsome man in Namimori from beating up his friends, and there's also this time when he defeated a powerful dojo-buster* all by himself. The one we're doing is when he defeated the captain of the kendo team for the sake of winning over the girl he liked."

"When is the culture festival?"

"Next week."

An evil glint appeared in Reborn's eyes as he asked, "Then we better get started memorizing these lines then, huh?"

**~8~**

The next day…

"Wow, Hide-kun! You really worked hard memorizing the lines for the play, haven't you?" Megumi said in amazement.

"Yeah, I want this play to go great," Hide nodded while grimly thinking, _Actually, I stayed up all night with Reborn because he threatened to poke needles in my eyes if I didn't memorize the lines by today…_

"As I thought, you're perfect for the role of Dame!" his crush said cheerfully.

"You wouldn't have had to been apart of that whole conspiracy, would you…?" he asked suspiciously.

"Wow, Hanabi-chan looks really cool in a guy role, doesn't she?" she quickly said.

"I guess," he sighed, _You were apart of it, weren't you?_

"Twelfth!" Hanabi quickly came over to where Megumi and Hide were standing and said, "Twelfth! Can you believe that their making me do a guy's part in this stupid play?"

"It's not stupid, Hanabi-chan," Megumi argued, "And I think you look good in guy clothes! Plus, the role your playing is Dame's best friend, I thought you would be pleased with that role."

"Maybe if it was a girl's role, and I don't understand why I have to be in costume for rehearsal!" she yelled angrily in the Namimori Middle boy's uniform.

"I heard that all the girls think you look very handsome in it," the red-head said delightfully

"Relax, scary girl," said Morita as he walked up to the group, "At least you're not playing the evil captain of the kendo club."

"This play is so messed up, nobody even remembers these peoples' names," Hanabi pointed out critically, "Other than Dame, we all just have titles like 'Dame's best friend' or 'captain of the kendo club'."

"Well, most of this is just based off of old school rumors, of course the names are going to be lost," Megumi shrugged.

"That's easy for you to say, you're 'Dame's crush'," she said sourly.

"Why don't we just use our surnames?" suggested Morita, "Its not like anyone's going to notice, and I think it sounds awkward to say lines like 'The prize for this contest will be Dame's crush!'"

"Hm, well we could do that…"

"Oh yeah, and I've been wondering how you guys got scripts about a school rumor," said Hide, "It must've been hard for whoever wrote this since there are so many different versions out of the rumor out there."

"Adam-kun volunteered to write the script," Megumi explained, "And he gave me copies of the script the exact same day."

"So this is Adam's script?" he questioned and looked back at the script in his hands, _For some reason this script just got a weird ominous aura surrounding it!_

"Anna-chan also said that she would be in charge of the entire set and our costumes can just be our uniforms or from the kendo club," she continued, "So, except for those two, the whole class has a chance to play a role in the play, which means we can use every single person mentioned in the stories of Dame."

"That's great," Hide murmured reluctantly while thinking, _Why is it that I have a feeling something awful and really weird will happen in the middle of the play…?_

**~8~**

"Hey, Adam," Hide whispered to the foreigner as he watched, with a bored look on his face, the rehearsal that was going on at the front of the class.

"Yeah, Boss?" he replied back before asking, "Wait, shouldn't you be up there, Boss? It's one of the scenes you're in after all."

"I already have my lines memorized and I'm not speaking in that scene," he explained and then asked, "But something's been bothering me…"

"What is it?"

"Did you get this script from Reborn? It seems like something he would do just to make fun of me."

"Of course not, Boss!" Adam said with slight offense, "I wrote this script myself after hearing about what a 'culture festival' was!"

"What do you think it is?"

"A time where the students in the school can do really cool things like haunted houses, cafes, and plays!" he said with a dreamy look in his eyes, "American schools don't have those kinds of things, and when Anna and I heard about that we both became really excited and wanted to participate in it."

"S-Sorry," Hide quickly apologized and thought happily, _Wow, it looks like this is something they're both serious about…_"But where did you get the idea of doing the Dame rumors?"

"Oh that? That was Mr. Reborn's suggestion," Adam quickly answered.

"I knew he was behind this!" he groaned, "He didn't make anymore suggestions, did he?"

"No, he just made the suggestion of using one of the Dame rumors," the foreigner said cheerfully.

One of their classmates interrupted the two and said, "Grandhart-kun, your sister wants you."

"Okay, excuse me, Boss," he waved to Hide and started heading to the back of the class where his sister was.

"I guess those two are actually serious about this whole thing," Hide said thoughtfully, "That's pretty surprising."

"Sawada, we need you for this next scene!" someone called.

"Alright," he said reluctantly and came over to the group of students that were standing idly by, "What do I need to do?"

"We need you to wear this," one of the classmates said as he picked up a hanger from the pile of clothes they were crowding around.

Hide paled when he saw the outfit and quickly shook his head, "No! There's no way in hell that I'm going to wear _that_!"

"C'mon, Sawada, it's in the script!" the girl who stood next to him said in a critical tone, "Grandhart-kun and Grandhart-chan worked the most on this play!"

"Just do it, Sawada!"

"Yeah, but this is going too far!" he said defensively, "I mean, would you guys wear something this embarrassing!"

"No," they all said in unison, "but you're also the only that has to wear it and the only one that can pull it off."

"Why!"

"Because you're the perfect fit!"

**~8~**

Quite a lot of arguing and a pleading from Megumi later, Hide grudgingly came back in the classroom in embarrassment. He was wearing light blue boxers with yellow smiling faces on them.

"I knew Hide-kun was a perfect fit for the Dame-role!" Megumi said cheerfully when she saw him, "After all, Dame was a nudist like Hide-kun, right?"

_You think I'm a nudist! _he thought in horror but then slow realization crept up upon him, he began with fear quaking his voice, "N-Now that you mention it…There are a lot of parts in here where I'm only in my underwear."

"That's why we all thought that you were the perfect fit!" she said with the exact same cheeriness.

_That's the only reason I'm Dame!_ Hide gaped.

"Lookin' good, Sawada," someone snickered.

"Shut up! Quit making fun of the Twelfth!" Hanabi jumped in to save Hide, which happened to make things even worse, "Even if he has a pathetic body-type!"

This caused the class to laugh even more and Gokudera to yell even louder.

"Th-that's enough, Gokudera-san…" the boy muttered embarrassedly.

"So cool!" someone, whom Hide mentally thanked over and over again, shouted from the other end of the room, "Sakuraba-san just came back from trying on his costume!"

The whole class swerved their attention to the boxer, now dressed in the kendo club's uniforms.

"That's so cool, I've never actually seen the kendo uniforms before!" someone said in awe.

"It took a while to find one since the school kinda disbanded the club a while back," Morita admitted, "But they were in a closet at the gym."

"It surprisingly fits you, Morita-kun," Hide noted.

"Hide, why are you in your underwear?" he asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it…"

Anna then interrupted them and said, with a wig in hand, "Boxer-guy, you have to wear this wig too."

"Why?"

"Because in one scene, you get your hair pulled out by Boss."

Morita did a second-take on that and grabbed the script out of someone's hands, "I do!"

"Do you even know your part, Morita-kun…?" Hide sighed.

"Of course I do!" he said while examining the script, "I'm the evil senpai that challenges Dame to a fight!"

"What are your lines for scene 1?" Anna asked.

"Uh…" Morita blanked.

"They're 'You bastard! You've gotta be kidding me if she would ever go out with you! Pervert!', learn that," she recited and then gave him another script.

"Well, since we're on that scene already, why don't we get started with rehearsal?" Megumi quickly said to gain the attention of the class.

"Alright!" everyone said excitedly.

**~8~**

The days went by quickly, a bit too quickly much to Hide's chagrin, and soon the day of the culture festival was upon them.

"We've worked hard, so let's do our best!" Megumi said cheerfully to the rest of the class.

"Yeah!" they all cheered.

"Twelfth, you're going to do great-no, you'll be the best in the whole play!" Hanabi said excitedly.

"Er, thanks Gokudera-san," Hide muttered embarrassedly.

"What about us?" Morita laughed.

"Cheer us on too, Gokudera!" Suzuki interrupted happily.

"You and the giant-freak can go to hell!" she hissed at them.

"I'm sure you'll all do great," said Megumi, who came out of no where.

"I'm sure Hide will do horrible," said Reborn, who came out of no where.

"Reborn!" Hide groaned.

"Guys, the whole room is filled up with people," Anna called to them, "Let's get started."

"Alright!" they said in unison and went to get in their places, Hide stayed behind for a second to talk with Reborn.

"Reborn, you aren't going to do anything weird, are you?" he asked suspiciously and then pleaded, "Please don't! This week has been weird enough already!"

"Weird?" Reborn raised one of his infantile eyebrows, "Look around, stupid-Hide. Hasn't this whole week been pretty normal?"

"Eh?" Hide's eyes widened.

"You're a normal student participating in a culture festival with his friends and classmates," his tutor pointed out, "Has the Vongola Family been mentioned at all this week? Or the Mafia?"

He paused and slowly said, "No…"

"Then wouldn't you say that you've had a pretty normal week?"

"Um…" Hide stared into Reborn's beady eyes and stammered, "I-I-"

"Hide!" he spun around and saw Morita calling to him, "Get on stage, you have the first line!"

"Alright!" he nodded and then turned back to Reborn only to find that the infant had disappeared. "Reborn…?" he muttered before running onstage to shout the first line, "Tanaka! Go out with me!"

"Eeeek! Dame!" Megumi's voice could be heard screaming.

The play went on and then it ended, and with its end came the beginning of the new school year and the true beginning of Hide's life being turned upside-down.

**~8~**

Meanwhile in the ritzy hotel room that was featured in the last chapter…

"You bastard…" Delia coughed as she fell to her knees while clutching her side, "Why would you betray the Vongola so suddenly!"

"I'm not betraying the Vongola," a figure hiding in the shadows said, he had a sword in hand that was dripping blood on the floor of the ritzy hotel room, "On the contrary, it is you that's betraying the Vongola."

"What are you talking about? I haven't done anything against the Varia or the Vongola!" she argued before covering her mouth in an effort to keep the blood from spilling out of her mouth.

The figure smiled and said, "You poor foolish woman, you really have no clue do you?"

"What?"

"Come on out," the figure laughed as the door just behind Delia opened widely, she struggled to turn to the newcomer but had ease when widening her eyes and dropping her mouth.

"You're supposed to be dead."

**~8~**

*** A dojo-buster is someone who goes around and defeats different dojos, most of the time its to challenge the other dojo or gain prestige from it. The rumor is based off of chapter 40 of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!**

****Dame means 'No Good', ahem, ahem…**

**~8~**

**O_O SUSPENSE!**

**And so begins the next arc! Thanks to all the readers for reading this far and keeping up with my dumb updating schedule! You humble me with your kindness lol**

**The next chapter will be the beginning of the arc as well as the first day of Hide's life as a second-year middle school student! It's been about a year since this has all started and I am quite pleased with how it all turned out. Chapter 50 is coming up as well and I wish to do something special for it…what that is, you'll find out on Chapter 50 :)**


	46. Ch 46: I Dreamed a Dream

Last night, Hide had a dream. But it was a strange dream. Everything was all dark in this dream, except for Hide, that is, who could for some reason see his own hands and legs as clear as day in the darkness. He didn't know why, but he could also feel the ground beneath his feet and a comforting warmth all around him

He wasn't bothered by this at all though; the warmth felt familiar and soft. Hide slowly turned around to examine his surroundings but found that he was indeed surrounded by pure darkness. Except…there was a light…yes, a faint trace of orange light flickered in the darkness and wavered like a flame, becoming brighter and brighter. Hide then noticed a man, a man with almost blonde-brown hair in a black cloak, he wore the orange flame gracefully, as it fit his appearance.

The man's eyes were closed, Hide couldn't help but feel some sort of familiarity towards him, and then his eyes open and startled the boy. The eyes were sharp, clear, beautiful and orange, for some reason, Hide felt comforted and relieved when he saw the eyes though he didn't know why, and the man's face was completely blank. But he also felt nervous now as the eyes seemed as if they were studying him closely while, at the same time, boring into his own soul.

A gauntlet materialized from underneath the cloak as the man extended it out to Hide, he then said something that was far too quiet to hear. Not that being louder would have helped since Hide was pretty sure that the man was also speaking another language. The man's blank face then seemed deep in reflexive thought as Hide made no motion to move, the flame on his forehead flickered still brightly.

And then, a small subtle smile graced the man's blank face.

**~8~**

"I'm late!" yelped Hide as he ran out of his bedroom and downstairs, frantically trying to gather his things for school.

Reborn, of course, tripped the boy in his frenzy and then stood over his fallen body.

"What was that for?" his student groaned in pain before realizing that Reborn didn't really need a reason for inflicting pain upon him.

"You were being too loud," like so, "And today's your first day of being a second-year student, you don't have to go to school for another two hours. Why are you up so early?"

Hide blushed in embarrassment as he forgot that today was indeed his first day of being a second year middle school student.

"Oh," was all he could mutter.

"Hide-kun!" he heard his mom call from the kitchen, "Are you already up?"

"Yeah, mom, I made a mistake," he shrugged as he got on to his feet and headed for the kitchen.

"Hide," Reborn stopped him after he took a few steps and asked, "Did you notice anything strange last night?"

The thirteen year-old soon-to-be Mafia Boss was still in thought for a little bit before saying, "Nope, nothing at all. Why?"

"There was a murder last night, a girl from your school was found without a head," Reborn said in such a nonchalant manner that even Hide had, for a second, thought that this was a completely normal occurrence.

"What! Why are you telling me such morbid things so early in the morning!" the boy paled.

"You're the sole candidate to the largest and most powerful Mafia Family in the world, any murder that happens near you is not coincidental."

"That's a ridiculous reason! Besides, we should just leave that stuff up to the police."

"The police won't be able to do anything about it."

"Why?"

"Because, it was a Mafia Crime."

**~8~**

Sawada Hideyoshi searched the bulletin board at the front of Namimori Middle frantically for his name.

"Don't worry, Hide, I'm sure you're up there," Sakuraba Morita reassured him.

"Then why can't I find my name?" he asked worriedly. It was the first day of school and, as was tradition for Namimori Middle, all the students had to examine one small bulletin board to find their name out of hundreds of names to figure out what class they would be in.

"I found it!" someone shouted, it was Suzuki Kouhei. He beckoned Hide to come closer and said, "Look, its right in between mine and Sakuraba's name! Looks like Megumi and the Grandhart twins are in our class too this year."

"So they organized the list in alphabetical order this year, huh?" Hide sighed with relief, "Thank goodness."

"Twelfth, we're in the same class again!" Gokudera Hanabi said happily as she ran towards her beloved mafia Boss, she then sneered and sourly noted, "But those idiots are in our class this year also…"

"Hide-kun!" the boy spun around and saw the girl of his dreams, Tanaka Megumi, coming towards him, "Isn't it great? We're all in the same class again!"

"Yeah!" Hide nodded, "Class 2-B, I can't believe we made through as second-years!"

The bell rang and they all looked up, "I guess we better get to our classes, huh?"

"Yeah!" he nodded again before heading inside the school with his friends.

_This year is going to be good, I know it!_ Hide thought to himself as they started walking to class, _Everything will be perfectly normal! I'm going to get back my grasp on normalcy! Even if Reborn_-"Ow!"

"Ow!" the boy's happy thoughts were interrupted as soon as he ran into a small girl with dark hair that was in pigtails, she wore the Namimori girl's uniform and was rubbing her nose.

"Sorry, are you alright?" he quickly asked.

"Yeah, my nose hurts really badly now though," the girl muttered, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Hide nodded.

"That's good," she said with relief and looked up at Hide, her dark eyes immediately widened when she saw his face, "Waaah~! You're Sawada Hideyoshi-senpai, right?"

"Eh?"

"The super cool and awesome senpai* that ran around in his underwear on the first day of school!" she continued in awe, "I'm a super big fan of senpai!"

"Y-You are?" Hide stammered in confusion.

"Yes! Senpai is the coolest!" she exclaimed, "Will you be doing that underwear thing again this year?"

"Hey, Hide are you going to hurry up?" Morita called.

"Eeek! The super scary senpai that became captain of the boxing team as a first year, Sakuraba Morita-senpai!" the girl squealed in a mixture of fear and awe, "As expected of Sawada-senpai to be able to tame even the scary captain!"

"What?" both Hide and Morita asked at the same time.

"And there's the infamously super handsome and pretty captain of the baseball team that happens to be really bad at baseball, Suzuki Kouhei-senpai!" the girl said in awe when she noticed the confused baseball player, she alsos recognized Hanabi and Megumi, "Wow! The beautiful and dangerous cool-girl, Gokudera Hanabi-senpai, and the brilliant and influential school idol, Tanaka Megumi-senpai!"

"Idol?" Megumi questioned.

"Who are you?" Hanabi snapped.

"Gokudera-senpai just asked me who I was! So cool!" the girl said excitedly, "My name is Kurori Saori! I'm a first-year and I'm super pleased to meet you! Please take care of me!"

"Shouldn't you be with the rest of the first-years at the orientation meeting?" Hide wondered.

"Senpai even looks after his kouhai**! So cool!" Saori squealed happily before explaining, "Actually, I'm the student representative for the entire first-year class! Because of that, I'm in charge of posting up the class assignment charts for the first-year students!"

_That explains the large rolls of paper…_Hide nodded hesitantly and looked back at Saori, "How do you know all of us, anyways?"

The girl laughed and said, "How could I not? Sawada-senpai and his group are infamous in school for being the strangest bunch around!"

"Who're you calling strange, stupid girl!" Hanabi grabbed her collar and threatened.

"One of Gokudera-senpai's famous scary threats? As expected of the 'cool but really scary beauty'-senpai!" the younger girl said with awe while being shaken ruthlessly by her elder.

_I don't know whether or not that's a compliment or an insult!_ Hide thought.

"I don't know whether or not that's a compliment or an insult!" Hanabi shouted angrily while shaking Saori even more.

_She just repeated my thoughts, what the heck!_ he gaped.

"Uh, excuse me, Kurori-chan," Megumi began slowly, "But you have the first-year's class assignments, shouldn't you be posting those up before the other first-year students get angry?"

"That's right!" Saori gasped in surprise before replying, "Tanaka-senpai is so responsible, thank you!"

The younger girl then ran off after saying her goodbyes, leaving Hide somewhat confused on what had just happened.

"Did that girl seriously call us all 'senpai'?" was all that came to his mind.

"Haha, isn't that one of the perks to being a second-year?" Suzuki asked after letting off a small chuckle.

"I'm really not used to being called 'senpai'," he said.

"Yeah, it kinda makes me feel old," the baseball player commented with a grin.

"You're 13," Hanabi dead-panned, "You're not even old enough to drive."

"It makes me feel a little old also," Hide said jokingly.

"That's because the Twelfth acts years beyond his age!" she said enthusiastically after completely flipping her personality.

"Oh yeah," Megumi said as if she remembered something, "Have you guys heard who our new teacher is supposed to be?"

"Who?"

**~8~**

"And so I became your new homeroom teacher!" Kurokawa Takuma laughed at the podium in front of the class, "I managed to pass my teachers examination with flying colors! Haha!"

_This guy just sleeps all day in class, how in the world did he pass his teacher examination? _Hide thought grimly. In truth, Kurokawa Takuma was so annoying to the rest of the teachers that they supposed that since he was only going to be a gym teacher they passed him anyways.

"But don't worry, I'm only a gym teacher," the teacher quickly said, "I'll be in charge of the health classes and gym classes, so instead of calling me Kurokawa-sensei, call me Coach! Or Coach Kurokawa!"

"Are you an actual coach of something?" Hanabi dryly asked.

"Not yet!" he laughed, "But if any of you guys actually need a coach for a sport of whatever, just tell me!"

_You would probably just fall asleep during the practices!_ Hide thought. In all honesty, Kurokawa probably would.

"And don't worry, I definitely won't fall asleep!" no, he seriously will.

"Sensei, when are you going to take attendance?" Hanabi asked in annoyance.

"Right, right, thanks for reminding me Gokudera!" he said while still beaming with happiness, Kurokawa then opened a thick black folder and began reading names off of a list, "Sawada!"

"Here!" Hide said before thinking, _Well, he's just a homeroom teacher, most of what he has to do is take attendance and tell us what we're doing today…and he seems to be doing alright with at least this._

"Sakuraba."

"Here," Morita said in a bored voice, he then quickly turned around in his desk to Hide, who sat diagonally to his back-right, and whispered, "Hey, Hide, do you wanna hang out downtown after school?"

"Alright," he nodded and then thought, _Didn't Adam and Anna say they were going downtown also?_

"Hey, turn back around in your seats!" Kurokawa shouted, even though Morita was sitting in the front row.

"'kay," he said before turning back in his seat and saying, "Oh yeah, Megumi's coming also."

"What?" Hide blushed and then hid his red face behind his book, "Um, where are we going exactly?"

"It's just shopping," Morita shrugged, oblivious to his friend's red face, "I think the scary girl is coming also."

"Hey, pay attention!" Kurokawa whacked his folder on Morita's desk, he then smiled and laughed a little.

"You just like acting like a teacher, don't you?" Hanabi asked tiredly.

"A little," he admitted and looked through his folder, "Has anyone seen the Grandhart twins?"

"Their probably ditching and having fun someplace else…" Hide muttered under his breath and then wondered the location of the two assassins, _Come to think of it, they weren't home this morning. I couldn't find them in my closet or under my bed…_

The words from this morning that Reborn had spoken suddenly reached his mind. The boy's face went pale as he thought, _They couldn't have had anything to do with dead girl, could they?_ _No, of course not. As far as I know, they have nothing to do with it._

He then realized that he thought the words: As far as I know…and, in the history of words, "As far as I know" was never a good collection of words. Hide's eyes wandered over the twins' seats in the classroom and he concluded in thought: _They killed her! They definitely killed that girl!_

Hide looked up at the front of the class where Kurokawa was now lecturing about the school events and the subjects they would be studying in each class, and, though not as exciting as thinking about death and murder, Hide felt slightly comforted by this as it was a completely normal occurrence.

"This is so boring," Hide yawned quietly, he then decided to look out of the window to start spacing out. After a few minutes, Kurokawa's voice droned on in his head and he began to feel drowsy so he fell back to sleep.

**~8~**

Everything became dark, Hide found that he was no longer at his desk next to the sunny window but instead he was floating in pitch black darkness. This whole scene was beginning to feel uncomfortably familiar as he turned around and saw the same man again.

"Wh-Who are you?" he stammered nervously while trying to keep his eyes avert from the orange flame on the man's forehead.

The other opened his mouth to say something except there was nothing but hushed mutterings in a foreign language.

"Huh?" he blinked and nearly jumped when he heard a voice from directly behind him say:

"So this is what the Vongola Twelfth dreams about?"

Hide spun around and gaped when he saw who it was, "Chloe!"

The small illusionist was gazing past him and towards the man with the orange flame, she couldn't help but smirk.

"You dream of the dead now, Vongola Twelfth?" she asked grimly.

The man began to speak again, he spoke the same exact words as before but Hide could not understand.

"What's he saying…?" Hide wondered aloud.

"This is your dream and you don't know?" Chloe nearly laughed at his foolishness and explained calmly, "He is warning you, Twelfth."

"Warning?"

"Yes," she nodded and smiled darkly, "And he is also saying something else, but I can't understand it."

"Why can't you understand it?"

"Because he is speaking in Latin, a dead language."

Hide shuddered when he heard her say 'dead' and immediately thought that nothing good could come out of a warning that was in the form of a dead language. The man slowly disappeared only a few seconds after Chloe had explained, leaving the soon-to-be Boss stunned.

The illusionist looked at him and said, "I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on you, Sawada Hideyoshi."

He stammered before exclaiming, "I don't want that!"

"You're life is in danger, deal with it," her tone turned serious, she then snapped, "Now wake up already."

**~8~**

"Hn?" Hide snapped awake and quickly raised his head off of his desk, he tiredly rubbed his eyes, "What time is it…?"

"Huh? Sawada, you're still here?" Hide looked up and saw Kurokawa standing at the classroom doorway.

"Kurokawa-sensei! I can explain!" he began frantically.

"School's already ended, why are you still here?"

"I-I…" he gulped, "I was just really deep in thought!"

The classroom was deafly quiet for a few awkward minutes before Kurokawa spoke, "You know, if you fell asleep during one of the classes then I won't tell on you or anything. A lot of the other teachers lessons are super boring, so I don't mind if you fall asleep."

"So," Hide slowly began to change the subject, "what are you still doing here, Kurokawa-sensei?"

"Oh me?" his teacher began saying bashfully, it was probably because a student had called him 'Kurokawa-sensei' on purpose and not by accident, "I was just getting some extra work done and filling out paperwork to get tomorrow off!"

"You're trying to get tomorrow off even though you just became a teacher?" he asked skeptically.

"I'm not being lazy or anything, my cousin just came in town and I was going to have drinks with him tomorrow."

"I don't think you should be telling your students that last part, sensei…"

"You're right, you're right," Kurokawa laughed and said, "I want to thank you, Sawada, you had my back when I was a stupid assistant teacher and without you I wouldn't have become a gym teacher. If there's anything I can do for you, just say so."

"Nah, I don't really feel comfortable taking favors Kurokawa-sensei…" he said uncomfortably and thought, _Didn't you threaten me at the beginning of the school year that my friends would be expelled if I didn't help you?_

"Well, I'll see you next week then," the newly made teacher waved to his student as Hide scurried out of the class room.

A thought then rang out in Kurokawa's head, and in the empty classroom he said to himself thoughtfully, "Wait, 'Sawada'? Isn't that my cousin's surname…?"

**~8~**

"It's about time you got out!" Morita exclaimed when he saw Hide run out of the school building, "I had to convince the scary girl that you didn't die or something!"

"Shut up, it's natural to be worried about the Boss, you giant moron!" Hanabi yelled at the boxer while Megumi giggled at the scene.

"Sorry, sorry!" he apologized vehemently before asking, "Why didn't you guys wake me up when school ended?"

"Reborn-san told us not to disturb you," Hanabi quickly said, "He said he had something to talk to you about."

"Reborn did?" Hide wondered, _That's strange, I haven't seen him all day except for this morning, and if he wanted to talk to me he could have kicked me awake or something._

"Oh yeah, I invited Kurori-chan to come with us," Megumi suddenly said.

"Who?"

"Hi!" the girl Hide had run into earlier that day appeared behind Megumi, she smiled brightly and waved at Hide, "It's so great to see you again, Sawada-senpai! And it's such an honor to be able to be around Tanaka-senpai and Gokudera-senpai."

"What about me…?" Morita muttered sadly.

"Of course, it's wonderful to see the scary-sempai also!" Kurori Saori said without any hesitation.

_Is that supposed to be some sort of compliment of something?_ Hide wondered but instead asked, "So, where are we going?"

"There's a new place over in Namimo-" Megumi began but stopped when a man with messy blonde hair and all black clothes jumped out from behind the corner of the street and ran straight into Hide.

"Ow!" he yelped as he was knocked to the ground.

"Sorry about that, kid," the man quickly apologized before running off.

"What was that all about?" Morita wondered as he helped Hide up.

"He must have been in some hurry," Megumi said and then looked at Gokudera, "Right Hanabi-chan?"

Hanabi didn't answer, she was still staring at the path the man taken.

"Gokudera-san?" Hide called her name with slight worry, "Are you okay?"

"Is Gokudera-senpai always like this?" Kurori whispered to Megumi.

"No, not always," the girl admitted before walking up to Hanabi and asking, "Hanabi-chan, you don't want to kill that guy or something?"

Hanabi turned her head to Megumi and answered, "Not really. I was just looking because he looked like someone I knew."

"Really? Well, if that's all we should get going before the sale over at the store ends," the red-haired girl said cheerfully.

"Sale?" the word perked Hanabi up almost immediately, "You didn't tell me there was a sale!"

"Is there something special about sales or something?" Hide muttered before wondering, _Someone ran into me and Gokudera-san didn't even want to strangle him? That's strange even for Gokudera-san's standards._

"Let's go, quickly!" the silver haired bomber said excitedly.

**~8~**

After two hours of just running around from shop to shop in a frantic hurry to catch up with the girls, Hide and Morita were both worn out beyond belief.

"I don't think I have run that much in my life," Hide panted heavily and looked up at the girls, who were all drinking soda and chatting happily with each other at a table that was nearby but out of earshot from the boy's table, "How are they still fine?"

"I have no clue," Morita gasped for air as he sat opposite of Hide, "Those crowds were too big for such a small sale."

"Hey, guys, were going back for more," Megumi suddenly appeared at their table and said helpfully, "You can both stay here and watch our stuff, okay?"

Hide nodded as the girls disappeared into the crowd and took a sip from the soda he had achieved at getting in the throbbing mob that was the Namimori Shopping District. He looked around for a bit until noticing a familiar face in the crowd, it was walking towards them at a very fast pace.

"Isn't that the guy I ran into earlier?" Hide wondered aloud while squinting in an attempt to recognize the person heading to their table.

"What?" Morita turned around in his seat and looked in the direction Hide was looking, "Maybe? I don't know, I didn't really see his face."

"Hey, kid!" the blonde haired man shouted as he struggled to get through the crowd, "Did you take something of mine?"

"What?" the boys looked at each other uneasily.

"I'm talking to the short one," the man clarified before glaring at Hide, "You took something of mine."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" he asked while slightly shrinking into his seat.

"Don't pull one over me, punk!" the man growled and pulled Hide out of his seat, "It's in your jacket isn't it?"

"There isn't anything in my jacket!" he yelped while trembling in the ugly yellow jacket that was part of the Namimori Middle School outfit.

"Hey, Hide didn't take anything from you," Morita came to Hide's defense.

"Yeah he did," the man persisted, "I know for a fact that I had it before I ran into your little friend here, and right after I was looking through my pockets and couldn't find it at all!"

"H-Hold on, I didn't take anything!" the smaller boy yelped.

"Then give it back," he said in a deadly serious tone.

"I don't even know what 'it' is!"

"My ring! You stole my ring," the man said angrily, "Give it back now!"

"A ring?" Hide yelped and began digging through his pockets, "Wait a second, maybe it fell into my pocket or something."

"Or maybe it just fell on the street, Hide, you don't have to look for it," Morita said confidently, "I know that you wouldn't ever steal anything from anybody."

"Um, thanks, Morita-kun," he said embarrassingly.

"After all, you're way too weak and cowardly to pull that kind of thing," the boxer continued with the same amount of confidence as before.

Hide ignored the last part of the comment and was surprised when he felt something round and metallic in his jacket pocket.

"W-What's this…?" he stuttered in shock as he pulled out his hand from the pocket and saw an extremely expensive and lavish looking ring in his palm.

"That's my ring!" the man yelled angrily.

"I-I don't know how it got in there!" Hide stared wide eyed at the ring before thrusting it out to the stranger, "I'm really, _really_ sorry! It must have just fallen into my pocket!"

The man snatched his ring back from the palm of Hide's hand, he looked at him suspiciously and then back down at his ring before seeming to reach a resolution and shrugged, "It doesn't look like you meant any harm by it, don't worry. Thanks for giving my ring back."

He sighed with relief and asked, in an attempt to be friendly, "It must mean a lot to you, huh?"

"Yeah," he nodded with a small smile on his face, "I'm Andre, by the way."

"I'm Morita," the boxer said after recognizing the friendliness Andre was offering.

"You can just call me Hide," said Hide nervously, "I really am sorry about the ring…"

"Forget about it," Andre shrugged, "I have it back, that's all that matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be with someone waiting on me."

"Oh, sorry! We've kept you up!" Hide quickly apologized, this act only made the man laugh.

"Haha, you say sorry an awful lot, kid," he laughed before waving, "Maybe I'll see you later, see ya!"

"Bye," the two boys waved back as they watched Andre disappear into the crowd.

"He was nice!" Morita said cheerfully, "I wonder if we'll see him again?"

"Hide-kun!" Megumi called as she approached them through the crowd, "Morita-kun! I'm so sorry, we've been leaving you boys out! We'll go to the arcade soon, I promise!"

"Don't worry about it," Morita was first to reply, "How much money did your dad give you anyways?"

"Only 10,000 yen*," she answered cheerfully, Hide almost choked on his spit when he heard the amount.

"You're dad gives you too much money," the boxer said before she left, completely unimpressed by the amount.

"What kind of job does Megumi-san's dad have?" Hide whispered as visions of a successful businessman or lawyer entered his head.

"He works for the police as a, what was it called? I think it was Chief Superintendent**?" he asked in a questioning tone before shrugging in defeat, "Anyways, he works for the police as some important guy."

"Oh," Hide nodded before doing a double-take, "Wait, he works for the police? As in the police that catch people who are, say, from the Yakuza or the Mafia?"

"Mafia? I guess, though there aren't that many Mafia people in Japan, right?" Morita asked with a confused expression, "Megumi gets a nice allowance from her dad since she's the only child."

Hide was taken aback by this, mostly by the fact that Megumi's dad was a cop. Thinking back on all of the dangerous things that he had gotten Megumi into or had even allowed her to watch, Hide was surprised that he was not even arrested yet.

"Speaking of Megumi," Morita began to change the subject, "Her birthday is coming up soon and-"

Everyone started screaming. Hide didn't know why, but everyone also started running away, not from him but it seemed like from everywhere in general. The throng of the crowd pushed and pulled at him like the waves of an ocean, Morita had reached out and grabbed Hide to prevent him from floating away in the sea of people.

"What's going on!" Morita yelled as people screamed around them.

"I don't know!" Hide yelped before the windows of a close by shop exploded.

"Get out!" a voice shouted above the crowd, Hide looked up and saw a figure dressed in a blue and white suit, his hair was shoulder-length and shaggy and was a dark shade of blue, his eyes flashed yellow as they scanned the crowd in search of something, "Come out now! Vongola Twelfth!"

Hide wasn't really listening as he was more shocked to see that the man was 1) flying in the air with shoes covered in green electricity and 2) he held an electric guitar in his hands that also had electric sparks coming out of it.

"Vongola Twelfth! Get out now!" the man repeated in a hoarse but clear voice, he then laughed crazily, "Come out, come out, wherever you are! Haha!"

The laughter snapped him out of the daze of the electric sparks that coated the man.

"Did he just say Vongola Twelfth?" Hide asked.

~8~

*** 10000 yen=about 125 US dollars**

**** A Chief Superintendent is the chief of a prefecture police headquarters**

**I'm working on a 'horror/thriller' approach to this arc of Skywards, so I hope it's working out as I slowly build and build on the suspense. I'm sorry to my readers which is why I have decided to post two chapters simultaneously; one today and the other tomorrow, the next chapter will have a more in-depth apology.  
**


	47. Ch 47: Redux

"Did he just say Vongola Twelfth?" Hide asked to no one in particular, his eyes remained transfixed on the electric sparks coming out from the flying man's electric guitar and feet.

"Come out now, Vongola Twelfth! Or I'll kill all of these people," the electric-man yelled, he then demonstrated his power by strumming his guitar once harshly; one could see the air vibrate around him as just about everything around the man exploded.

"Th-That's crazy!" Morita yelped, pulling Hide out of his mesmerized state, "What the hell is going on here?"

"We need to find Megumi-san and get out of here!" the blonde haired boy said quickly, "It's too dangerous to even be here!"

"Right!" Morita nodded before jumping up on the table next to them, to get out of the way of the crowd, and began searching through the mass of people for Megumi and Hanabi, "There!" he pointed at last, "I can see the girls, they're heading towards the exit also!"

"That's good," Hide sighed with relief.

"Ah!" the boxer's eyes widened and he informed the boy what was going on, "But the doors are blocked now!"

"By what?"

"That crazy flying guy just blocked exits by making a store collapse!"

"What? What would have happened if he had hurt them!" Hide yelped.

"Why should he care?" the squeaky voice of Reborn made the boy spin around, "He's an assassin that's here to stop you, what would he care if some other people are hurt?"

"Reborn!" Hide brightened with relief, if he had ever been so happy to see the sadistic infant now was the time, "Quick! Help me!"

"No."

"What? But they're going to hurt Megumi-san and Gokudera-san!" he quickly said.

"Then here," Reborn tossed a pair of white leather cowboy boots at his face, "Use those."

Hide grabbed them off his face and paled, "What the hell am I supposed to do with these?"

"Wear them for starters, idiot-Hide."

While the blonde-haired boy struggled to put the boots on his feet, Reborn looked up at Morita and tossed him something, "Here's something for you too."

"Eh?" Morita caught it and stared at what was in his hands now, "These are those gloves! The ones that have spikes coming out of them! I thought these were destroyed in that base!"

"Good observation," Reborn smirked as the boxer put his gloves on, "I had them remade into a stronger material that is also insulated and a nonconductor of electricity which was the fault of the last version of those gloves.

"I didn't understand what any of those words meant," he said with an idiot's confidence, "But that just means I can beat that guy, right?"

Reborn smiled at this, "Yes, you can beat that guy."

"R-Reborn!" Hide called but instead of getting the infant's attention, he got the attention of his gun.

"Stand back, Hide, it would be dangerous for you to fight in the condition you're in," his tutor said coldly.

_My condition?_ the boy wondered and then said aloud, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Just stand back and let Morita take care of it."

"Don't worry about it Hide, I'll just bring this guy down in a sec!" the boxer grinned and looked up at the flying man, "All I have to figure out is how to get up there though…"

~8~

"Megumi, Kurori, get down!" Hanabi warned as she quickly led them to a back alley way, "You guys will be safe here, okay? I'm going to go find the Twelfth and the giant."

"Hanabi-chan, don't go!" Megumi stopped her and worriedly asked, "What if you don't come back?"

"Don't worry, I'll come back," the bomber sighed.

"Promise us then," she said while holding out her pinky finger, "A pinky promise, c'mon Kurori-chan," she took the other girl's hand and formed it so that the pinky stood out, Megumi also took Hanabi's hand and did the same and then she wrapped her pinky around the other girls' pinkies, "Pinky promise that you'll come back, okay?"

Hanabi stared in stunned silence at this before smiling and nodding, "Alright then, I promise to come back for you."

She then got up and ran into the busy, frantic crowd, she kept on running until she got into another alley way and took a small, ruby-red cube out of her bag, "Good thing I took this from Nagi this morning," she muttered to herself and held out a fist, one of the rings on her fingers began to glow red before it ruptured into a violent, dark red flame. Hanabi then inserted the flaming ring into the hole of the cube she was holding and held it out.

The small doors of the cube opened and large hawk with eyes that were piercing red flew out of the box with wings the size of telephone poles and claws that were covered in the same violent red flame that was on the girl's ring.

"_Tempesta Falco_*," Hanabi smiled at the hawk before looking up to the flying man that was destroying pretty much everything around him, "Get me up there, I want to fight him."

The hawk obeyed as she climbed on top of it, a pack of cards appeared in her hands as the hawk flew up into the air, "I won't allow anyone to hurt the Twelfth."

~8~

Hide looked up when he saw the flying man explode, or at least heavily burnt by one of Hanabi's exploding cards. He watched as the man fell to the ground in a smoking heap, and he watched as a stupidly large bird pretty much came out of no where with Hanabi riding on its back.

"What the hell?" his jaw dropped as Hanabi got off her gigantic bird.

"Twelfth!" she said with relief while also completely ignoring the bird, "Thank goodness you're safe!"

"G-Gokudera-san, wha-what's up with the g-giant bird behind you…?" the boy stammered fearfully while the hawk was preening itself.

"Oh, that's _Tempesta Falco_, it's just something I took from my brother," she said dismissively before turning back to tasks more important, "You're not hurt or anything, are you, Twelfth?"

"Um, no, I don't think so…"

"That's a relief," she said happily before frowning when she heard a groan behind her.

Hanabi turned around and scowled when she saw the electric, flying man trying to get up, strangely enough though he was laughing.

"Heheh," he snickered as his singed body slowly got up, "So you're the Vongola Twelfth, little brat? Well, I'm not done yet, brats," he spat, "My partner is around here, wherever that lazy-ass went."

"Don't call me a 'lazy-ass', Ugo," a voice said darkly, a piece of metal could be heard being scrapped along the concrete as it was dragged by its owner. A torrential down pour of rain began covering the area, Hide couldn't help but notice that the raindrops somehow managed to look like they were on fire at the same time.

"Tch, so that bastard's here also," Hanabi scowled as she suddenly became tense and suspicious.

"Do you know who's coming, Gokudera-san?"

"Yeah," she said unhappily, "He's the worse guy in the world."

"Oh, don't call me that, Hanabi," the rain parted like a curtain in the air and revealed a man, dressed in all black, with blond hair and brown eyes. It was funny though, since the man looked kinda like-

"Andre-san?" Hide wondered, beginning to feel sick to his stomach as he watched the man.

"Hide?" Andre looked up at the boy in surprise and noticed Morita behind him and glaring, "Morita?"

"What the hell is going on, Andre-san?" the boxer asked dangerously.

"What? How do you guys know each other?" Hanabi asked suspiciously while looking back and forth between the groups.

"We met only a couple of minutes ago," Hide said in a sad confusion, "Andre-san, what's going on?"

"I'll tell you what's going on, Twelfth!" Gokudera began before the man could answer while pointing straight at him accusingly, "That guy's part of the Varia, the same horrible organization that Chloe was apart of!"

"Andre-san is…? The Varia…?" he swallowed nervously.

"Stay back, Twelfth," she warned while taking out her explosive cards threateningly, "You can never trust a Varia assassin."

"Andre!" the flying man that Andre called Ugo had shouted, "Quit standing around and kill them! One of those kids is the Twelfth candidate!"

Andre frowned at this and said grimly while staring straight at Hide, "I think I know who it is…"

"You're not getting through me, traitor!" Hanabi threatened before she threw a few playing cards in bullet speed, the cards then exploded and caused a cloud of smoke to.

Andre burst through the cloud, sword at the ready, and without any hesitation went straight towards Hanabi.

The young Vongola Candidate shivered when he spotted the death glare given to him by Ugo, and the suspension continued until Reborn interrupted by calling out Andre, "I thought your business was protecting the Vongola Twelfth, Andre, not killing him."

"…" Andre slowly looked down to where Reborn stood and started speaking in a louder, more audacious voice as he stated, "Reborn, I was dismissed from that duty the day my Boss died."

"What's going on? Reborn? Andre?" Hide asked, panicked while looking from Reborn to Andre and the back again.

"I'm sorry about this, Hide," the swordsman looked at him sadly.

"Andre here is the former Rain Guardian of the first Twelfth candidate for Vongola Boss," the infantile tutor explained.

"Rain Guardian?" he wondered and then realized the big picture being enacted in front of him, "First Twelfth? As in, the guy that was up for Vongola Boss before me?"

"That's correct," Reborn nodded.

"Twelfth, let me handle this guy, you need to run and hide!" Hanabi urged him and ushered the humongous monster of a bird, which Hide had somehow managed to forget, to come forth and screeched at Andre threateningly, Hanabi then turned to Morita, who was simply stunned at everything that had been going on, "Giant! You're job is to get the Twelfth the hell out of here! Got it!"

Morita snapped out of his stunned daze and silently nodded before taking Hide's arm and running off with the boy struggling to keep up behind him. But Andre quickly took notice of this and after muttering under his breathe: "Oh no you don't…" he swung his sword in their direction and, it seemed to Hide, a wave of water whipped out of the sword while he swung it and slapped the two boys powerfully down to the ground.

"For your own good, don't run away," Andre said while pointing his suddenly blue-glowing sword at the two, he turned back his attention towards Hanabi and said, "I suggest you put away you're little pet before something bad happens to it."

"No! I'll protect the Twelfth with my life!" she exclaimed much to her 'Twelfth's horror and embarrassment.

"Andre!" the half-dead Ugo, who was almost entirely forgotten by now, screamed at his partner, "Just finish them off already, lazy-ass!"

The swordsman clenched his teeth and pulled out a blue box from within the thick jacket he wore and, Hide wasn't quite sure what he did because it was done in a split second, the tiny box opened and a blue-tinted penguin** materialized out of the box with sapphire flames adorning the tips of its small wings and clawed feet.

"Hah! A penguin?" Hanabi laughed at this, behind her the massive red-flamed hawk flapped its wings almost mockingly.

"_Pioggia Penguino***_!" Andre shouted and pointed towards Hanabi's humongous bird, the penguin, that was no taller that Hide's own knee, fell onto its belly and, as Andre swung his sword and water rapidly materialized from its blade, slid on the newly made wave of water and actually knocked the hawk down on one go.

"_Tempeste Falco_!" Hanabi gaped as her most powerful ally fell to the ground and suddenly disappeared in a red flash of fire and into the small red box in the girl's hand that looked very similar to Andre's.

"Gokudera-san!" Hide yelped as the penguin decided to make another go around, but this time towards her.

But his attempts at warning her were in vain as he watched the penguin slam into her and knock her to the ground harshly.

"Gokudera-san!" he screamed in horror, he got to his feet and began to run over to her but stopped when he spotted Andre slowly move towards him.

"I warned her, if you want to protect your friends, come with me, Hide," he warned, the blade of his sword burst into a flame that matched the penguin's own.

Before Hide could reply though, Morita pulled Hide out of the way and said, "Run."

"What?"

"Run!" he yelled and pushed him in the opposite direction of the swordsman, "If you haven't figured it out yet, Hide, they're out to get _you_! So _run_!"

The word stuck like glue in the boy's head and his feet began to take action before his mind had any time to think. He ran as fast as he could and didn't even realize that Morita hadn't followed him until he had gotten behind a building and looked around. Hide's skin whitened as he heard an explosion and saw a cloud of smoke arise from the area he was around earlier.

"M-Morita…kun…?" he stammered and fell to the ground while shaking uncontrollably with fear.

"Get up," he heard someone say, the boy looked up uneasily and froze. "I said get up, stupid-Hide," Reborn ordered and then hit his student on the back of the head harshly with a rubber baseball bat.

"R-Reborn!" he yelped and was smacked again.

"What are you doing?" the infant asked demanding-ly, "You're hiding behind a building and shaking like a baby without its mother. Is this how a Vongola Boss acts?"

"I'm not going to be a mafia boss!" he blurted out before quickly covering his mouth with his hands.

Reborn smirked at this and then proceeded to beat Hide until his skin was black and blue, "Idiot, you're a candidate for Vongola Boss, so you should act more like a man and less like a boy."

"B-But I'm just a kid!" he pointed out, "I can't fight against guys with swords made out of fire and have fire-penguins also! I can't go against weirdo guys that can fly and make things explode by strumming a guitar! How am I supposed to protect my friends when all I do is just run away and they take care of things?"

"Easily," he smirked, "You stand by and watch."

Hide paled at this remark and questioned it, "What?"

It was then that a cloud of pink smoke filled the area and from it emerged two figures, one with notable white hair and the other with red rubber boots.

"N-Nico and Ahiru!" the boy paled.

"Ten years later-Nico and -Ahiru," Reborn corrected him and Teen-Nico and Teen-Ahiru came out of the smoke, one looking like he was about to fall asleep and the latter looked like she was about to beat someone to death.

"What's going on?" Nico wondered with a yawn.

"I'm going to bite to death whoever took me from the school meeting…" grumbled the prefect.

"What are they doing here!" Hide yelled, "I don't want more people hurt because of me, Reborn!"

"Shut up," his tutor scolded him after beating him to near death once more, "They're not like how you are now, after all, they're the future."

"Over here! In the pink smoke!" Hide could hear someone shout up a din, it sounded like the crazy flying man, Hide thought he was called Ugo or something.

"Ahiru, there are some ruffians disturbing the peace and order of Namimori, would you mind…" Reborn began but stopped as Ahiru had already run off when the words 'ruffians' and 'disturbing the peace' came up. The infant then turned to Nico and ordered, "You go off and protect Hide too."

"Do I have to?" the teenaged boy complained but quickly complied when Reborn pointed his gun at him and clicked, "Alright-y then!"

"Reborn! I don't want more people to get hurt!" Hide muttered anxiously.

"Shut up and watch, this will be a good example for you in the future," his tutor ordered with a smirked.

~8~

"Oh my god, just shut up already, Ugo!" Andre yelled at his companion as he was grating on his last nerve.

"You're the one that let that little bastard go though!" Ugo yelled in a persistent manner, "Just wait till the Boss hears about this!"

"Then I'll just blame you for losing to a little girl with just her brother's toys," the swordsman warned and began walking away to a different direction.

"Wait! Over there!" Ugo suddenly pointed towards a peculiar cloud of cotton-candy-pink smoke, "In the pink fog!"

"There's something in there," Andre observed.

"I was just pointing out the fact that there was pink smoke rather than there was something in it," he said in an almost mocking manner.

"Oh shut up, Ugo," the swordsman-assassin rolled his eyes and readied his sword for use, "Besides, you don't think pink smoke comes from _nowhere_, right? Not only that, but that kind of pink smoke is made from only one thing."

"What?"

"The Ten Year Bazooka," he said right before Teen-Ahiru burst out of the cloud and attacked him with her tonfas. Andre was quick to block her with his sword, which in turn burst into a dark blue flame, and made her quickly back off.

"Where the shit did she come from?" Ugo screamed.

"Shut up and be alert you asshole!" Andre yelled back, "There's bound to be another one like this girl around."

"…Sorry…" Teen-Nico bumbled out from the cloud rather lazily.

"White haired herbivore," Ahiru summoned him as she readied her tonfas to attack again, "Stay out of my way."

"Will do," he waved as her metal tonfas burst into a purple gaseous flame, he took notice of this and asked, "Hey, is this one of those Flame battles?"

"Stay out of my way," she repeated in a deadly tone and then looked over to Andre, "Get out of Namimori or I'll bite you to death."

"Not without Sawada Hideyoshi," Andre answered.

This seemed to strike a chord within Ahiru everything around her seemed to get darker and the purple flames on her tonfas grew larger, her face darkened and she glowered, "No one harms Hide-nii."

And then she attacked.

~8~

*Means "Storm Hawk" in Italian or "Storm Falcon" if you're more comfortable with that.

**Andre's penguin is actually a Macaroni Penguin, for those that are wondering google what it is.

***Literally, no joke, means "Rain Penguin" in Italian.

~8~

**Sorry for the supremely late update, I had a writers block and then school harassed me for a long while. I won't be updating these next chapters for a while and I want to apologize to the readers who have stuck with me and put up with me all this time. Thank you and I'm sorry. And now for a story:**

**I was recently reading some of the reviews that Skywards received from past readers and before I knew it I was crying. For the past few months I have been going through a writers block and I promised to do competitions that I knew I had no time for. This made me cry. I had promised some of the readers that questioned me that I would have had Skywards done by the end of last summer. That made me cry. In place of writing Skywards, I was working on a different fanfiction project that I had actually promised myself I would work on after finishing this. I broke my promise. Another thing that made me cry. I have disappointed myself and others and for that I deeply apologize. I am full of 'I'm sorry's and apologies. And all I can say is "Thank you"**


	48. Ch 48: Another Tutor?

"Shut up and watch," that was what Reborn had told Hide to do, and he did watch. He watched in wide-eyed amazement as a fight arose between Ahiru, Andre, Nico, and Ugo, and he especially paid attention to the bits involving the strange colored fire.

"Uh, Reborn?" he asked in as calm a voice as he could muster for this kind of situation, because he felt that 'calm' was really the only thing that could be "Now seems to be a good time, if any, to ask this: Why does Andre-san have a fire covered penguin and Ahiru-chan have purple fire coming out of her tonfas? And why did you just tell me to stand here to watch Ahiru-chan and Nico-san fight?"

"You might learn something from their example," his tutor said, "And I'll explain their Dying Will Flames later."

"Those are Dying Will Flames?" he asked before being kicked in the gut.

"Shut up and watch."

And so, Hide watched the fight, much to his chagrin. It mostly involved Ahiru fighting the two villains, Ugo and Andre, and Nico sort of standing in the back trying to avoid the mayhem.

"Beat her! Beat her! Beat her!" Ugo yelled excitedly as he thrashed his guitar around, trying to catch Ahiru with it.

"So annoying…" Andre muttered under his breath as he also fought, but was remarkably more composed than his partner.

Ahiru took this moment to uppercut Ugo and take a swipe at Andre simultaneously, however, to her annoyance, she missed when aiming for Andre. It was then that she actually noticed that Nico was just standing around and trying to avoid getting caught in the action.

"Hey, herbivore," she called him out while dodging the other men's attacks, "It makes me sick watching you stand idly by, take the weaker of the two for now."

"Hah!" Ugo laughed, "She's talking about you, Andre!"

"Idiot," Ahiru muttered before kicking Ugo in the gut, thus pushing him towards Nico.

Andre smiled at this and said, "I agree, thank you."

"Hn, I just want to fight the strongest," she smirked and continued attacking with her purple-flamed-tonfas.

~8~

"Screw you guys!" Ugo screamed at Andre and Ahiru, both of whom continued to ignore him, before spinning around towards Nico and scoffing, "Goddammit, now I have to fight this little runt."

Poor Nico, who looked like he was about to pee his pants, could find nothing to say in this type of situation other than, "I'll have you know, that I'm actually a year older than her*!"

"Goddammit, I have more important shit to do!" he roared before swinging his electric guitar at him.

"Woah, woah!" Nico yelped while dodging each hit Ugo threw at him, "Can't we just talk about this?"

"No!" he yelled, "Fight like a man, you damn pussy!"

"Jeez…" the snow-haired teen sighed as he put a hand into his pocket, "Fine, fine, I'll fight…"

~8~

"So you're not just a normal high school girl then, huh?" Andre grinned as he kept on fighting Ahiru.

"Hn, and you're not just any herbivore," she smiled also.

"Huh, you remind me of a man I know," the swordsman smirked did some sort of maneuver that allowed him to suddenly get behind Ahiru and knock her to the ground, "Fortunately though, you don't fight like him."

He then turned his attention over to Hide and said, "Hide, I'm going to give you one more chance to come with me peacefully before anyone else gets hurt."

Hide was about to talk when Reborn suddenly spoke up, "Just shut up and watch."

"B-but Reborn…" the boy began fearfully, "Ahiru-chan just lost and-"

"Lost?" his tutor smirked, "That's a pretty big insult you just set yourself up for there."

"Eh?" Hide looked over to where Ahiru was knocked to the ground and watched as she slowly got up, looking more pissed off than ever before. But despite the fact that she looked incredibly pissed off, there was a scary, evil smile on her face.

"What's this?" Andre looked back over to the girl and was swiftly knocked off his feet by a punch he did not see coming.

"I'll bite you to death…" she said dangerously, the purple flames on her tonfas grew larger and a violet box appeared in her hand; to Hide, Ahiru looked like she punched the box and out came two stupidly large koi fish that had purple, gaseous flames on their fins and whiskers.

"W-What are those!" Hide yelped while almost falling down to the ground in shock.

"Cloud Koi," Ahiru answered for him before moving a watchful eye towards him and saying, "I'll bite you to death for even thinking that I lost, herbivore."

_Did I just make her even more mad!_ Hide cringed.

"Yeah, pretty much," Reborn said in amusement.

"Not knocked down just yet, huh?" Andre muttered to himself while getting up and wiping some blood off his chin, Ahiru immediately got into a defensive stance with her tonfas as the koi fish swam around her in the air.

"Fine, fine," he said tiredly and looked at his watch, "Let's just get this over with."

"Sakana! Pesce!**" she called on her Cloud-koi fish, they immediately assembled themselves almost to the ground and as soon as she put her feet on them, as if on a surfboard, the fish rocketed towards him while she looked ready to start pounding Andre in the face with her tonfas.

"This is getting tiresome," Andre sighed and swung his sword in her direction, a wave of water came out of the tip of the sword and continued coming out, looking like a whip of water, until it shot out at Ahiru.

She dodged the water whip Andre made while on her fish still and readied her tonfas to smack the swordsman down, but missed when she came close to him. Instead, Andre had ducked and used his sword to slash the koi fish, the one that Ahiru wasn't riding on, in half.

"One down…another to go," he said to himself and bent around to face Ahiru, who was coming back around to try to hit him again. Which failed when Andre's Rain-Penguin flew up in front of her and knocked her off of her koi fish, allowing Andre to slice it in half as well.

"There, both are gone now," he said to Ahiru, while spinning his sword idly, "Now, are you going to give in silently, or am I going to have to cut you down too?"

The teen-Ahiru smiled evilly at him and said, "What are talking about? Can you not count?"

"Hm?" Andre looked around to where he had cut the koi fish and watched as one newly sliced Cloud Fish became two fish, and in place of the other Cloud fish were two others. The swordsman's eyes widened as he watched the fish multiply and turned back to Ahiru.

"The Cloud Flame's affinity is Propagation," she said while getting back up, the Cloud Koi fish swam over to her side where she got to stand on top of one, "I'll have to thank you for cutting them down, they would have grown bigger if they stayed that size for a while."

"What?" Andre's widened in shock as the fish suddenly began to grow larger and larger while also growing more and more menacing as well. He began helplessly cutting them down, and when he looked to his Rain-flamed penguin for assistance, found that it had been crushed under the concrete by one of the large Cloud Koi.

"Tch, waste of my time," Ahiru said to herself as she spun around from the sight of Andre being crushed by the fish when they body-slammed him. She then began walking towards Hide, who was scared out of his mind about the whole idea of fish that grew large and multiplied with themselves.

"Good job, Ahiru," Reborn complimented her.

"Whatever," she said dismissively and asked, "What about the white-haired herbivore?"

The infant smirked and said, "Look."

~8~

"What the hell, why am I losing to a stupid brat like you?" Ugo screamed while holding his wounded and bleeding arm, the guitar in his hand disintegrated into burnt up dust.

"Ah, sorry," older Nico apologized, he now wore a helmet that had ram horns on it that sparked and crackled with a similar electric-like flame that Ugo had, and then he shut off one eye at the man while saying, "I think that my flame is just a tad bit stronger than yours."

Ugo shuddered in horror, "What? How?"

The teen shrugged and said, "I don't know, because I'm better than you, I guess."

With that, the man quickly stood up and looked around for his partner, only to see that Andre was now even more bloodied than him and was completely unconscious.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to fight," teen-Nico sighed, "Now I don't know whether I should let you go or kill you here."

"I-I'll get you for this you little runt!" Ugo yelled before going around and heading to grab Andre to leave.

"Not so fast, herbivore," Ahiru began as she cut him off and said, "I'll bite you to death for making such a mess."

"Ugh!" the green-haired man grunted as she began to attack him.

"W-Wait! Ahiru-chan!" Hide called out and, much to everyone's surprise, Ahiru actually stopped.

"I'm outta here!" Ugo muttered and, before anyone else could do anything, he grabbed Andre roughly and began running off.

_Wha-what the hell did I just do?_ Hide screamed in his head.

"You just let the bad guys get away," Reborn answered for him and then pointed to Ahiru, who had a dark and threatening aura coming off of her that could have cut paper, "Now you'll have to face that."

The girl was silent for a few seconds, with her back turned away from Hide, until she said, "Herbivore…"

"Y-Yes!" both Nico and Hide answered.

"The white-haired herbivore," she clarified with annoyance, "Go after that cowardly herbivore."

"Yes ma'am!" Nico saluted, because he felt that if he didn't his face would have been pounded in by Ahiru's tonfas, and then left to go after Ugo.

"Herbivore-Hide-nii," she finally turned to face him, "I've been finding myself in strange and sudden places for what seems like no reason more recently lately, and whenever that happens you are always around with your pathetic face and body. It annoys me."

_I knew it! She's going to beat me up again!_ Hide gulped nervously.

"But," she began, while eyeing him carefully, "Just now, right before I killed that cowardly herbivore, I thought I heard the Hide-nii that I know…Reborn."

"Yes," the infant said.

"Please don't bring me to these places until this herbivore finally becomes a carnivore," she said.

"Fair enough," he agreed right before she exploded into a cloud of cotton candy-pink smoke and became a little girl wearing a raincoat and red rainboots.

"Huh? Where is Ahiru?" the younger-Ahiru questioned while looking around until she noticed Hide and ran over to hug him affectionately, "Hide-nii! Ahiru thought Ahiru was at the park with Takuma-nii!"

"Takuma-nii?" Hide wondered, _as in, Kurokawa-sensei…? Hold up! Your older self was just threatening me and now you're hugging me like nothing even happened!_

"Wait a second!" he said and quickly looked around, "Where's Gokudera-san and Morita-kun? They were hurt really bad! Right?"

"Don't worry about that," said Reborn, in his hand was a small cellphone, "Rosario just came in with back-up and medics are taking care of the two as of right now."

"Thank god!" Hide sighed with relief and asked, "What about Megumi-san and that other girl?"

"They're safe also, Rosario is guiding them out personally."

"That's good," he said before collapsing to the ground and mentally remarking at out how much his legs had been shaking with fear until now, he added, "Reborn, what was with all that crazy looking fire Ahiru-chan and Andre-san had?"

"Hmm…" Reborn hummed thoughtfully while looking around and picking something up, "I'll tell you later," he said before smacking his student on back of the head harshly pipe that was on the ground.

Hide fell down and was completely unconscious, leaving Reborn alone to stare at him with a distant look in his beady eyes, "Stupid-Hide."

~8~

Hide dreamt again. It was the exact same dream as before except that this time, in place of the strange man with orange eyes, there was a younger man, who looked as old as Hanabi's brother, Nagi, and had dark brown hair. Hide noted that he looked somewhat familiar.

"Who are you?" he asked cautiously, "What happened to the other guy?"

"_I am Sawada Domeki, Vongola Dodicesimo_," the young man said calmly, "_Or, at least, _was_ the Vongola Dodicesimo._"

_He's Japanese, huh?_ Hide thought before asking, "Was? What happened?"

"_Eh?_" Domeki looked confused for a second before saying, "_Well, I died of course._"

The boy paled at this and quickly apologized, "S-Sorry! I guess I should have thought that over in my head before asking…"

"_Hm, no, it's alright_," he shook his head, "_I died rather young, so I can see how I could confuse you. Anyways, you met him didn't you?"_

"Him? Do you mean the guy with the orange eyes and fire on his forehead?" Hide asked while pointing to his own forehead to help with the description.

"_No, a man named Andre, you saw him didn't you?_" Domeki asked.

"Eh? Yeah, I did, why?"

"_Crap!_" the young man suddenly began grumbling to himself in frustration, "_You weren't supposed to see him yet! Now everything's all messed up!_"

"What?"

"_Nothing, nevermind_," he shook his head and ruffled up his hair in annoyance at his own self, "_Look, Hideyoshi, right? You're going to wake up, and when you do you'll see a black woman named Yaani. Now when you do…_"

And then Hide woke up and he couldn't really remember all that had happened in the dream but nevertheless felt that it was something very important, or at least very interesting.

~8~

Hide was woken up by the sudden panicked feeling of not being able to breathe. This could have been because of the contribution that Anna gave by almost smothering him with a hospital pillow.

"Oh look, he woke up," she said in monotone.

"What the hell were you trying to do to me!" he yelled while coughing and gasping for air, he looked around quickly at his surroundings and wondered why he was in a hospital bed and why Adam and Anna were there.

"You have a visitor," Anna told him and lifted up the rest of the pillow out of his face to reveal a tall black woman standing behind the twins.

"Boss, you're so lucky!" said Adam ecstatically.

"W-What? Why? Who is this?"

"My name is Yaani," the black woman said in, what Hide thought, was a remarkably calm and pretty voice.

"Yaani?" the name sounded familiar, but the young to-be-Boss couldn't quite remember why.

"Boss! Yaani is one of the most powerful hitmen in the world!" Adam whispered to the boy, "She even worked directly under the other Twelfth."

"The other Twelfth?" Hide wondered.

"Yeah! She's so cool!" the blonde-haired foreigner said in awe.

"She's also gonna be your new tutor," said Reborn, who had decided to just randomly appear standing on tope of the hospital bed Hide was in.

"T-Tutor?" Hide yelped, "Why am I getting another tutor?"

"Because I'm going to be busy for a little while," was the infant's answer, "Yaani is qualified enough to be your tutor for a while, she's renown in the Mafia Underworld as one of the best kick-boxers out there which will help with your training to handle the Vongola Boots."

"Ugh, I don't understand any of this…" Hide groaned while holding his suddenly throbbing head, "Wait, why am I in a hospital bed? I wasn't fighting at all!"

"You fainted right after asking what happened to Megumi," said Reborn.

"Did I? But I don't remember anything…"

"It's called fainting, stupid," his tutor scolded, "You're not supposed to remember much before you faint."

"But I've fainted before, and for some reason my head hurts really badly…" he said suspiciously.

"Maybe you hit your head on something when you fainted, Boss?" said Adam helpfully.

"Maybe…" he said doubtfully and, before he could figure out anything else, he noticed something glint off of Adam's finger, "Adam, what's that on your finger?"

"Hm?" the boy looked at his finger before brightening and saying cheerfully, "Oh yeah! Boss, you wouldn't believe it, but I was named one of your Guardians!"

"G-Guardian?" Hide paled, he had heard the phrase a few times already and whenever it had been said something bad generally followed it which had made him a bit cautious of whatever a 'Guardian' was, "W-What's a g-guardian? And why does it have to involve a weird looking ring?"

"Yaani's probably the best to explain this," said Reborn, before Adam or Anna could jump in to explain, he then looked over to the woman and added, "She knows from first-hand experience about the Vongola Guardians."

"Eh? She does?" Hide looked up at her cautiously.

"Fine, fine," she sighed reluctantly, "The 7 Vongola Guardians are 7 people close to the Vongola Boss chosen to protect and serve the Vongola Family, each Boss has their own set of Guardians, and each Guardian as their own purpose characterized by the name of each ring; for example, the blonde boy here has the Ring of the Cloud, meaning he is the Cloud Guardian: the aloof, drifting Cloud that protects the Family from the outside, and whom nothing can ever bind."

"Sounds so cool!" Adam whispered to his sister excitedly.

"What's mine?" asked Anna, she too had a ring on her finger that looked somewhat similar to Adam's.

"Yours is the Ring of Lightning, which makes you the Lightning Guardian: drawing damage to themselves and away from the rest of the Family, serving as a lightning rod," she said as if reciting the information from her head.

"Mine sounds stupider than yours, trade with me," Anna demanded from her brother, who snickered at the description.

"You can't just switch roles," Yaani told them, "You were both chosen for your positions for a reason, and that is to protect the next Vongola Boss, Sawada Hideyoshi."

"O-Okay," the twins said dejectedly, they both looked as if they had just been scolded.

"As for you, Hideyoshi," she turned to him and pointed to the ring on a necklace that he had no clue he was wearing up until this point, "You are also a Guardian as well, your ring is the Ring of the Sky, making you the Sky Guardian: influencing all sorts of people with a deep understanding and acceptance of them all."

Hide gulped nervously when she said this, it sounded really important and he felt embarrassed that he was barely able to keep up with any of it.

"Uh-Um," he stammered and raised a nervous hand in the air to ask a question.

"Yeah?"

"All this is a bit too much for me," he admitted sheepishly before looked back at his ring, "And there seems to be something up with these rings too…"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, they aren't complete, right?"

The whole room was silent before Yaani busted out into laughter.

"Hahah! You managed to notice, huh?" she laughed loudly and calmed down a few seconds later, "My, my, its been a long time since I laughed this much, haha, but anyways, I'm really surprised that you noticed that only a few seconds after being shown what a Vongola Ring is."

"Eh? Is something really wrong with the Rings?" he wondered while looking at his own, it looked much different from the ones Adam and Anna had. For instance, the twins' rings were shaped like half-shields whereas Hide's was shaped like half of a blue orb.

"Yeah, they're split in half."

"Half?"

"Yup, you guys only have the halves of the seven rings," she said while nodding to herself, "The other halves are with the people you'll be going against soon."

"Against? There's gonna be more fighting?" Hide yelped worriedly, "No way!"

"Fight?" Adam perked up at this news and began pleading with the boy, "Boss! Please let us join in! Me and Anna have been so bored lately! We really, really, really want to fight!"

"No! I'm not going to let you guys fight dangerously just because you're bored!"

"But Boss!"

"No means no!" he said stubbornly, "Besides, what if innocent people like Morita-kun or Suzuki get involved in this?"

"Ah, about that…" Yaani began sheepishly.

~8~

*To clarify things up, teen-Ahiru is 17 years old and teen-Nico 19, so in this case Nico is wrong he is actually 2 years older than Ahiru.

** 'Sakana' is Japanese for fish and 'Pesce' is Italian for fish

~8~

**Hey, sorry for the procrastination, I started an update-blog for Skywards and Al Cielo-related things. Along with adding updates there's gonna be other stuff too, including family trees, in case people are just getting mixed up with whose related with who, and also illustrations of the characters that I've drawn myself. I'm also going to be answering all those questions that I've been getting repeatedly such as: Are you ever going to put HanabiXwhatever in here! When will you make the 10****th****'s Family appear! And many more questions that end in ! Check it out at: ****c h a n c h e n c h a n . t u m b l r . c o m**

**Next chapter will be much more exciting, I promise!**


	49. Ch 49: The Assignment

Meanwhile, at the Namimori Concert Hall, a rehearsal was going on. It was the rehearsal for a J-Pop concert, where the number one Idol in Japan was performing. People were bustling here and there, setting up microphones and lights in preparation for the concert.

"Good work everyone!" said a pretty, melodious voice that echoed throughout the Concert Hall, the source of the voice came from the center of the Hall's large stage, it was a very pretty woman with long black hair and onyx-colored eyes, she was the number one Idol in Japan, "I'm going home now, thank you all for working hard!"

There was a tired cheer that resonated from the workers around the Hall, the woman turned to leave off-stage when she noticed a boy standing backstage with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"Oh! Kou-kun!" she exclaimed as she ran over to Suzuki Kouhei and hugged him tightly, "Kyaa~! You're so handsome, Kou-kun!"

"M-Mom…" the boy said uncomfortably as he tried to pull away from his mother, Suzuki Shigure*, "Why'd you call me here, mom? Usually you don't bring me to your rehearsals unless you need something."

"Wow! Kou-kun, you're so smart! Kyaa~!" his mom squealed like a fangirl before letting go of her son and saying, "I just wanted to see my cute little boy!...and also ask him something."

Suzuki looked at his mother cautiously while asking, "What?"

"Well, I was just wondering, if you ever thought about the music business…"

"Mom, no," he shook his head quickly, "You know that I don't like music that much, and you also know that I just want to go to school and play baseball like any other kid with Hide!"

"Kou-kun, we all know that baseball isn't working out for you and you aren't that great in school also, if you want to be apart of something good-"

"I _don't_ want to be apart of something that's 'good'! I want to be part of something that's 'fun', geez, mom!" he huffed and quickly calmed himself down, "If that's all you wanted to talk about, then I'm gonna go home."

"Wait, Kou-kun!" she quickly stopped him, "At least quit baseball and join kendo."

"What? No way!"

"Come on, Kou-kun, the baseball team hasn't won any of its games, even with your help," she said haughtily, "You should do kendo like your father."

"I've never seen my dad, he has no influence over me."

"Then do it for your mother."

"Mom, I'm not even that great at kendo," he sighed, "I was trying it out a couple of months ago with Hide and his gramps, and Hide was learning faster than me."

"Hide-kun is a special case," she said in a suddenly serious tone.

"Anyways, point is, I want to stick with my old life, and I don't want to start anything new," he stated and then left through the back exit.

Suzuki Shigure stood alone in silence for a little while, until a man in a pin-striped suit came over to her from the other side of the stage. He had been standing unnoticed by most of everyone as if waiting for the idol to be alone.

"Shigure-san," he began, his features couldn't be seen very clearly due the fedora he was wearing but one could see definite blonde hair, "That was Kouhei-kun, wasn't it?"

"Yuuto…" she began and asked dejectedly, with tears coming from her eyes, "Do you think I'm a bad mother?"

The man in the pin-striped suit became unnerved at this, since the singer would sometimes fake-cry with the intent of acquiring sympathy.

"I think you're a fine mother," he said carefully and narrowly avoided getting hugged by the woman, "Did you give him it?"

"Y-Yeah, I slipped it in his pocket before he left," she sniffed and calmed herself down a little.

"That's good," he muttered to himself and looked at his watch, "It's about time I go see my own son, isn't it?"

"You mean Hide-kun?" Shigure wondered.

"Yeah," the man called Yuuto nodded and then asked, "Shigure-san, would you mind picking up that useless cousin of mine and taking him to the hospital?"

"I can send some people over, but why would you need that guy?"

Yuuto was quiet for a moment, as he thought of a response, until he finally said, "It's about the same reason why you gave that ring to Kouhei-kun."

~8~

"Geez, mom's crazy…" Suzuki muttered to himself as he got on his bike and began to ride it away from the Concert Hall, after a while he carefully took one hand off the handle bar of the bike and felt for his phone in his jacket pocket. But instead of his phone, he found a small, half-shield shaped ring in his pocket.

"Hm? What's this?" he wondered while slowing down to a stop.

~8~

"Suzuki has a ring too!" Hide yelped, "Why? He has nothing to do with the Mafia!"

"Then now he does," Yaani shrugged, "I used to have nothing to do with the Mafia, and now look at me."

"From what you're telling me, my 'guardians' have to fight those same guys back there," he argued, "Even Gokudera-san and Morita-kun were beaten up badly! I don't want anymore of my friends to get hurt! Thank god, _they_ weren't picked to be my Guardians!"

"Actually…" Yaani began again.

~8~

Meanwhile, in that very same hospital Hide was currently in, screams of an angry fit could be heard from with a certain room. Nurses and doctors would quickly walk by or flinch every time there was an angry scream.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gokudera Hanabi screamed in her hospital room while throwing her pillow ruthlessly on her bed, "I can't believe I lost so damn easily to that guy!"

"Hanabi," she spun around when she heard her named called and saw her grandfather, Gokudera Hayato, sitting in the chair behind her. She hadn't even noticed that he had come in.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she growled and slowly went back to her bed while trying to restrict her rage, "Can't you see that I'm in a bad mood?"

"I know that you're angry, it's because you lost a fight," he asked and then added, "And now you want revenge, yeah?"

"Yes," she nodded before saying angrily, "I want to get back at those bastards for making a fool out of me."

"Tch, all I see is an angry child, how can that protect the Vongola Family?"

Hanabi looked at him scrutinizingly and asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I was supposed to give you this," he said while digging through his pocket, when he finally pulled something out, Hanabi stood in awe of it.

"That's such a cool belt buckle!" she exclaimed before blushing and saying, "I mean, if you're into gaudy stuff like that…"

"Hmph, as expected of a girl, all you can pay attention to is how it looks!" Gokudera-oji frowned and began to put it away.

"Wait!" Hanabi quickly stopped him, "You said you were supposed to give that to me, right?"

"Yeah, but now I've decided otherwise," he said tiredly, "You don't have the strength or the heart to become the young Twelfth's Storm Guardian."

Hanabi's eyes widened at this and she exclaimed, "Storm Guardian! I'm going to be the Twelfth's Storm Guardian?"

"You _were_," Gokudera said while putting the belt buckle away, "But I refuse to give that title to someone who only thinks of revenge and anger. Even if they are my own grandchild."

"You cheap bastard," Hanabi growled, "You know I've always wanted to be the Twelfth's Storm Guardian!"

"And there are many others that can be the young Twelfth's Storm Guardian, what makes you so different from the rest of them?" he said sternly and slowly got up, "Until you show me your resolution to stick by the young Twelfth's side, I refuse to give up this belt buckle to you."

And with that, he left. Hanabi sat back down in her hospital bed and, surprisingly enough, did not scream angrily or throw into a fit of rage. Instead, she sat still on her bed as if deep in thought over something.

~8~

Morita listened, his room happened to be right next to Hanabi's and the walls happened to be paper thin. A few seconds ago, he had heard the screams and yells of Hanabi and what he thought sounded like an old man arguing loudly. However though, he had no clue what they were talking about, it all sounded like muffled sounds in his room.

"It's been a while since the scary girl made a noise," he mused to himself, "She's usually keeping me awake…maybe she ended up killing the old man in her room…?"

He wouldn't have been surprised if that had happened.

"Mr. Sakuraba?" Morita looked up when he heard his family name called, a nurse was at the door to his room and asked, "Sorry for keeping you here longer than you should, Mr. Sakuraba. The doctor will be here in a few seconds to check up on you before you can leave."

"Thank you, ma'am," he thanked, "Um, but how exactly am I supposed to be paying for these hospital bills again? I may not look like it, but I'm only thirteen years old and my parents haven't even come by to visit me at all."

"Oh, don't worry about that, sir," the nurse smiled peacefully at him, "All of your bills have been paid off already."

"Huh? By who?"

"Sorry, miss," the nurse was gently pushed aside before she could say anything, the one that had stopped her was a tall man, someone taller than even Morita, who was wearing a pin-striped suit. The man had straw blonde hair and caramel brown eyes, in his hands was a pin-striped hat that had a black, silk band which he ruffled almost nervously.

"A-Ah! Mr. Sawada!" the nurse stammered nervously.

"Please excuse us, Ms. Nurse," the man said gently.

The nurse quickly complied and left the room, the man in the suit walked around the room quietly for a couple of seconds before taking out a phone and dialing a number.

"Yeah, bring him in," he said to the phone.

"Uh, excuse me…?" Morita began nervously.

The man looked up and seemed surprised that Morita was even there, he then smiled in a way that seemed really familiar to Morita.

"Sorry, Sakuraba-san," the man apologized.

Morita stared at the man for a while before saying, very plainly, "You look like Hide, are you related to him?"

"Huh?" the man's eyes widened before he suddenly laughed, "Yeah, haha, my name is Sawada Yuuto. I'm Hideyoshi's father."

"Did you also pay for my hospital bills?"

"Yes, I did."

"Can I ask why?"

"Do you _want_ your parents to know that you were just in a life-or-death fight with crazy insane flying people that had fire coming out of their shoes and that you now are in a hospital?" he asked and then added as a comforting afterthought, "I told your family that you were sleeping over at Hide's house by the way."

"Oh, thanks."

"You're welcome," Yuuto nodded, "But anyways, I came here for a specific reason with a specific person."

There was then a knock on the door, and a group of men came into Morita's hospital room and dropped off a drunk, silver-haired, gym coach that also happened to be the boxer's own homeroom teacher.

"Kurokawa-sensei?"

"Ah, yeah, he's also my cousin," Yuuto sighed, "He got a little drunk last night and is still feeling the effects, so let me apologize for him in advance when he does something stupid."

"No, it's alright, he's my homeroom teacher and he does something like this a lot at school," Morita began, "But what I'm wondering is why is he here right now?"

"Well, first is to give you this ring," the man began as he dug through his pockets until he pulled out a shiny metallic ring that had half of a what looked like a shield where the gem should have been, he handed this ring to Morita and continued, "You have been chosen as Hide's Sun Guardian, please continue to take care of my son."

The boxer's eyes widened as he asked, uncertainly, "Hide's what?"

"His Sun Guardian," Yuuto clarified, "for his mafia family."

"Oh! You mean the mafia role-playing game?" Morita asked, "Alright then, I'm fine with that! Were those guys back there part of it too?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, let's go with that."

"That's all good with me, but I'll ask this again: why is Kurokawa-sensei here?" he asked again, this time staring at the drooling teacher, who was fast asleep on the floor.

"He's going to be your tutor while your training to fight the other side's Sun Guardian," Yuuto stated.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, I think I skipped a few steps," the man said thoughtfully and then explained the entire situation to Morita, in terms that he would understand of course.

At the end of the explanation, Morita exclaimed, "Then all I need is to beat up those guys that beat me up at the mall yesterday? I'll do it! When do I start training?"

"Hm," Yuuto looked over to his cousin, Kurokawa Takuma, and said, "I'm guessing whenever he sobers up.

~8~

"Well, can't stay in bed all day, can we?" Yaani said excitedly, she then threw the covers off of Hide and pulled him out of his hospital bed, "C'mon now, time to start training!"

"W-Wait! Training? Right now? But I'm in the hospital still!" Hide said in protest.

"Oh, that doesn't really matter since all you did was faint, right?" she said confidently while still continuing to drag him out of the room.

"But what am I training for? What's going?" the boy yelped.

"What are you training for? The Vongola Ring Battle of course!"

"People are going to want these rings, and these people are going to be willing to kill for them," Reborn said grimly before adding on a more cheerful note, "So it's your duty as Boss to protect them. Think of it as your homework assignment."

"Reborn! I told you I wasn't going to be a mafia boss!" This received a smack in the face that rendered Hide unconscious once again.

"Go ahead and take him, Yaani," said Reborn, "He'll be out for an hour at the least."

"Thanks Mr. Reborn," the woman said before coughing, "But, I must apologize in advance if I accidentally break your student into pieces, both literally and figuratively."

Reborn smirked at this and asked, "That's to be expected, isn't it?"

"Hm," Yaani smiled at him and began to lift the unconscious Hide unceremoniously by his shirt collar, "Then I'll do my best."

~8~

At that moment on the other side of town in downtown Namimori, in a ritzy hotel, in a luxurious penthouse, thunder boomed outside of a large glass window as Ugo and Andre came in. Andre was covered head to toe in bandages and limped a little, compared to him Ugo looked like the picture of health.

"What happened yesterday?" asked a voice, it came from a luxurious looking red chair that was facing the window and away from the pair of assasins.

"We're very sorry, Boss," they both said while bowing and kneeling on the floor.

There was silence before the voice asked calmly, "You didn't get him?"

"I'm sorry, Boss," Andre was the first to speak out, "I let my guard down."

"Y-Yeah, I let my guard down too, Boss!" Ugo stammered with fear.

"Leave."

They both slowly and unsurely began to get up to leave when, "Not you, Andre."

"Yes, Boss," the swordsman nodded and waited patiently for Ugo to shut the door behind him as he left.

Finally, the owner of the voice that had been commanding them stood up, it was a young man with brownish-blond hair and strange, orange eyes that appeared to possess wisdom that was beyond his own years. This young man held the air of a mature adult despite the face which looked like a child's.

"Andre," he said a light yet rich voice, "Why do you stay with me?"

Andre was silent for a few seconds before replying bluntly, "Because you have the eyes of my best friend as well as his voice."

A disgusted look overcame the young man's face as he advanced towards Andre and said, "Then look into these eyes and listen to this voice well, trash. I want to know why you, a former Varia assassin, hesitated!"

This former Varia assassin gulped nervously; he had only told the man that he had let his guard down, and never hesitated.

"That's the Vongola's Hyper Intuition for you, huh?" he muttered under his breath as he came to a conclusion within his mind.

"What was that?" the man demanded, "Answer my question!"

"I found another person that had eyes like my best friend's," Andre answered carelessly while smiling, he no longer cared what was going to happen to himself which is why he said this, "And even though his voice did not match my friend's, his kindness was the same. I think he'll become a fine Boss."

"You bastard…" the man growled, abandoning his silky voice for a darker one.

"Ah, I see it now!" Andre exclaimed half-joking, he had already decided now to be as much as a nuisance to the man as possible.

"See it? See what?" the young man asked demandingly.

"The difference," he continued, smiling mischievously, "I see the difference between your eyes and Domeki's now, Gio-"

After that Andre blacked out, soon after he was knocked unconscious, Ugo came back into the room and saw the pool of blood the swordsman was lying in and nearly puked at the sight.

"Ugo," the man with the orange eyes began, "Make sure to throw away the trash will you? I'm tired."

"Y-Yes sir!" Ugo saluted as the man slowly left the room, leaving the assassin alone with the other assassin's body.

~8~

*** If anyone is confused please review the chapter: Hospital Blues, where Suzuki states that his mom is Suzuki Shigure, a popular idol. I wouldn't blame you all for forgetting this, I forgot about it myself until I remembered why I put it in here**


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